Ways to work more efficiently are always high on Wrexham Council’s agenda and, with the help of a grant from Welsh Government, we have been piloting a project aimed at saving water.
Last year, Wrexham Council installed five moisture sensors in town centre planters. These monitor moisture levels to identify which planters need water, and which don’t. The aim being to optimise the growing potential of the flowers and plants in and around the city centre.
We have now expanded this project to 50 sensors.
Nigel Williams, lead member for economy, business and tourism, said: “This has been a really interesting project that has enabled us to save money by saving both time and water. The sensors pinpoint specific flower beds to be watered rather than a blanket approach where a person would go around and water all of the flowers daily. Not only does this reduce our carbon footprint by decreasing the number of vehicle journeys to collect water but also reduces manpower, freeing up staff to perform other duties in the city centre.
“This type of funding from the Welsh Government will allow us to have a more strategic approach to some of the operations and enable us to work smarter in some areas, saving vital funds to improve other services.”
This work has formed part of our SMART Towns project.
You can find out more about the SMART Towns project in our article on a recent conference.
