Category: Council Services

Yesterday, a meeting of our full Council looked at whether or not Wrexham should declare a climate emergency, in line with other national and regional authorities.

We’ve carried out a lot of work to fulfil our environmental obligations and limit our use of fossil fuels in the past 10 years, including:

• Installing more than 2,600 solar panels on council houses;
• Designing, installing and maintaining Wales’ first council-owned 2.64 MW solar farm;
• Installing solar PV on two council offices and 17 schools;
• The installation of a large-scale biomass boiler within one of our large office sites
• Internal lighting upgrades in more than 30 schools and offices.
• Electric vehicle charging points in five public car parks, and workplace charging in two office car parks – as well as the addition of five electric “pool” vehicles into the Council’s fleet
• Continuing to embrace digital technologies and reducing the in-house reliance on paper documents
• Setting up a project group to reduce single use plastic across all buildings and schools
• Replacing 4,000 lights, with another 8,000 set to be completed in 16 months, saving energy while cutting down on carbon and reducing maintenance costs
• Ensuring corporate energy supply to offices is supplied by renewable providers

STAY UP TO DATE – SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR TOP STORIES.

Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “While our record shows that we will work hard as an authority to tackle the issues rising from climate change and fossil fuel use, we’re well aware of the fact that many more challenges will need to be faced in future.

“We also know that this is an issue of public concern regionally, nationally and globally. As well as ongoing international campaigns by environmental groups, the Welsh Government recently declared Climate Emergency in Wales, which highlighted ambitious plans for Wales to be carbon neutral by 2030

“With that in mind, we want to look at a way forward, and how in declaring a Climate and Ecological Emergency we can build on our commitment to develop our decarbonisation action plan, which was agreed unanimously at full Council in May this year.”

Council Leader Cllr Mark Pritchard said: “We have a well-established record in working to limit our environmental impact as an authority, and know that there are further challenges on the way.

“We have a number of established commitments in line with these goals, including reducing our emissions and focusing on the environmental sustainability of our buildings, transport, land use and procedures and conventions around how we procure our services.

“These are well-established priority areas for Welsh Government and the majority of Welsh local authorities, including those who have already declared climate emergencies.

“We are also keen that our plans and commitments be revisited, and as such we will – after full development and scrutiny – review our decarbonisation action plan in May next year.”

Get the latest news and info straight into your inbox.

[button color=”” size=”large” type=”square_outlined” target=”new” link=” https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKWCBC/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKWCBC_5″] SIGN ME UP NOW [/button]

The first years of any child’s life can shape their future. Getting the right start can prevent school attendance problems, substance abuse, unemployment, illness and even early death.

Home-Start

Home-Start recruits and provides accredited training for local volunteers to help families with young children who are experiencing difficulties. Volunteers and staff support families on weekly basis as they learn to cope, improve their confidence and build better lives for their children.

Volunteers are often parents themselves and are supported by the staff team to increase their employability, skills and confidence. Home-Start provides a stepping stone for further education/training and employment for the volunteers and families.

Home-Start also run structured family groups and activities to promote play and positive parenting. They offer activities for parents and children to develop skills and provide opportunities to take part in wider community activities.

STAY UP TO DATE – SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR TOP STORIES.

Each family has a comprehensive assessment to identify needs and strengths and an individual family support plan is made.

Wrexham Council provide funding to help support some of the services run by Home-Start. These include informal parent support groups, 1:1 intensive parenting support and parenting programs.

These services aim to help reduce the number of children affected by ACEs in their childhood.

What are ACEs?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are stressful events occurring in childhood which can include:

• domestic violence
• parental abandonment through separation or divorce
• a parent with a mental health condition
• being the victim of abuse (sexual, physical, and/or emotional)
• being the victim of neglect (physical and emotional)
• a member of the household being in prison
• growing up in a household where there are adults experiencing alcohol or drug problems

Evidence shows children who experience stressful and poor quality childhoods are more likely to develop health-harming and anti-social behaviours, more likely to perform poorly in school, more likely to be involved in crime and ultimately less likely to be a productive member of society.

More information about Home-Start can be found here.

Further information about ACEs and their effects on children can be found here.

Get the latest news and info straight into your inbox.

[button color=”” size=”large” type=”square_outlined” target=”new” link=” https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKWCBC/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKWCBC_5″] SIGN ME UP NOW [/button]

The team behind the design of Tŷ Pawb has been commended after winning three prestigious awards in just two months.

Following the Gold Medal for Architecture victory at the National Eisteddfod in August, Tŷ Pawb, designed by architects, Featherstone Young, came away with two more awards at the Architects Journal Retrofit Awards 2019, held in London earlier this month.

As well as winning the ‘Cultural Buildings under £5 million’ category, Tŷ Pawb beat off stiff competition from 137 other finalists to win the biggest prize of the evening – The Architects’ Journal Retrofit of the Year.

The annual Architect’s Journal Retrofit Awards programme is one of the most highly regarded in UK architecture and celebrates the design, engineering and construction excellence that prolongs and improves the life of our built world.

Sarah Featherstone, from Featherstone Young, joined members of the Tŷ Pawb team to receive congratulations for the awards from the Full Council on Wednesday.

STAY UP TO DATE – SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR TOP STORIES.

“Wrexham now has a multi-award winning cultural facility”

Mayor of Wrexham, Cllr Rob Walsh, said: “It’s no surprise that the architectural skill that Featherstone Young put into this project has been recognised on a national level, and Wrexham can be very proud of what Tŷ Pawb has achieved – particularly in a Welsh cultural context.

“Tŷ Pawb is ‘everybody’s house’, and it’s not just the design that delivers this inclusivity, it’s also the way the building operates and the positive approach taken by our employees, traders, volunteers and partners.”

Lead Member for People – Communities, Partnerships Public Protection and Community Safety, Cllr Hugh Jones, said: “It’s extremely rewarding to see the exceptional hard work that was put in to the design of Tŷ Pawb being recognised on the national stage.

“To transform an old market hall and car park into the modern, vibrant centre it is today is a fantastic achievement.

“Thanks to the incredible vision and creativity of the design team, Wrexham now boasts a multi-award winning cultural facility, built at a fraction of the cost of developing a centre like this from scratch.”

“Huge congratulations to the team, this award is richly deserved.”

A “revitalised” public building with a “strong national profile”

Sarah Featherstone (Featherstone Young Architects) said: “‘This is an important award recognising the value of reusing buildings.

“Tŷ Pawb has revitalised an underused public building and introduced a new experimental model that combines art with a range of activities. We like to think this has made art more useful and more accessible to people in Wrexham as well as developing a place with a strong national profile.

“It’s great to have won the award and for Tŷ Pawb to have this support and recognition.”

What the judges said

A “really innovative example of retrofit” was how the Architect’s Journal judges described Tŷ Pawb.

Architects’ Journal architecture editor Rob Wilson described the winning project as: “An inspired transformation of a substantial public building, using a surprising modesty of means, not just in terms of its budget but in the lightness of touch of the architectural intervention.”

Judges praised in particular the strong collaborative relationship with the client. ‘It’s amazing what has been achieved in this building from such an unpromising start,’ said one. ‘It’s an example of a project that almost seems to revel in being done on a tight budget,’ said another. ‘It makes a real political statement and ticks all the criteria-boxes for a great retrofit.’

Watch the video

Architect’s Journal have created this great little video to showcase the winning building. Take a look…

Follow Tŷ Pawb on:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Sign up to receive regular news and updates from Tŷ Pawb