CLERK’S REPORT Friday November 20th 2020

Volunteer and Update Item 5.1 – Small Community Grants GRANTS TO DATE Requests have been received from the following groups: Ruabon Rovers – requesting £100 for marking of the grass for the pitch. Hello Helen,

I'm submitting a small grant on behalf of the Ruabon Rovers Football Club.

We are asking for £100 which will mark the Rec Ground ahead of the season, the contractor would be Idverde who currently have the contact for cutting the pitch. They provided us with the quote (Which the council already seen in the wider submission made in July).

The plan for a village team playing at the heart of the village (The Rec) has already gathered much support locally, which is seen on social media. This grant will go along way to contributing towards pitch works the club has already undertaken to create a better playing surface for the community.

We hope the village council can help.

All the best,

Callum. Chairman of Ruabon Rovers

Rev. Kate Tiltman – new noticeboard by the main door which will cost around £1500. St Mary’s Church, Ruabon

We had a noticeboard by the main door, but this has now disintegrated. We would like to replace it with a much larger noticeboard that would hold both church notices and community notices.

The church will be open every day once the Covid restrictions are over and so a noticeboard with relevant information about the church and the locality as well as the Ruabon heritage trail (of which the church is part) will be important.

The type of noticeboard we are looking at would be the size of the one in the car park on Maesyllan Lane and would be sited in the churchyard where the community can easily access it. As the church is at the opposite end of the village and there is no existing community board in the area it would benefit the village as a whole.

1

The total cost of a high quality board is about £1500, and a contribution would be gratefully received.

Thank you Rev’d Kate Tiltman Vicar

Ruabon Field Club – Hiring the hall and cost of speakers. Dear Helen Belton, Once again I am requesting Ruabon Field Club is considered for one of the Community Council’s small grants. We have found the grant most welcome in going towards the costs of hiring the hall and paying the fees of visiting speakers and have been most grateful in the past. We hope, once again, you look favourably on our request. Sadly, as for most clubs and groups, it has been impossible for us to meet during the past months. We had to cancel the speakers we had booked and also the visit to Arley Hall which we had planned. However we are looking forward to next year and hoping our program will be as interesting as ever! Yours sincerely, Pat Fowles

Happy Hands and Rising 4s – requesting grant money. PPE, cleaning products and help with staff wages. Charity Registration No. 1047647 CIW Reg No. W030000934/RP001/0001 1st November 2020 Dear Committee members, RE: Small Grants 2020 We would be most grateful if you could please consider our playgroup for a small grant which we would use to purchase PPE equipment & cleaning products and also to assist with staff wages ensuring that we are able to retain staff during these uncertain times. During the pandemic we have lost a considerable amount of income with rising costs of rent and also having to purchase PPE equipment and cleaning products we are looking to boost our funds. Thank you for considering our application. Staff at Happy Hands Playgroup & Rising 4s

Ruabon Brownies – letters attached. 1ST Ruabon Brownies C/O Heather Quayle Nythfa Queen Street Ruabon LL14 6PB 03 November 2020

Dear Councillors

I am writing to you on behalf of 1st Ruabon Brownies to ask if we could be considered for the Community grant that the community council give to local groups.

2020 has been a difficult year for all but I along with fellow unit leaders have done our best to keep guiding going in the village.

We currently have 17 girls registered to Brownies and have asked for no money from parents since the day we stopped meeting in March.

In this time we have held many zoom meetings, sent out letters, and kept our unit Facebook page updated at least a couple of times a week. We’ve played Zoom bingo and delivered prizes, as well as encouraging girls to work towards badges, make posters and stay cheerful through such confusing times. We’ve bought and delivered ingredients so that girls could take part in cooking zoom meetings so they could feel included when parents couldn’t afford it.

At present due to work and family commitments it is expected we will return to meeting face to face in January, pending Government guidelines.

We also have two 15 year old young leaders who give up so much of their valuable time to assist our guiding unit whilst gaining future leadership and organisational skills.

We have had no opportunities to fundraise and are already being advised that membership Fee for each person next year due at the end of February will be £44. This year has taken its toll on our unit account and any donation would be greatly appreciated to help us keep going through 2021 which we all hope will be a better year.

I look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards Heather Quayle Unit leader

Ruabon Guides – letters attached. 1ST Ruabon Guides 03 November 2020

Dear Councillors

I am writing to you on behalf of 1st Ruabon Guides to ask if we could be considered for the Community grant that the community council give to local groups.

2020 has been a difficult year for all but I along with fellow unit leaders have done our best to keep guiding going in the village.

We currently have 9 girls in Guides and have asked for no money from parents since the day we stopped meeting in March.

3

In this time we have held many zoom meetings, sent out letters, and kept our unit Facebook page updated at least a couple of times a week. At present due to work and family commitments it is expected we will return to meeting face to face in January, pending Government guidelines.

We also have two 14-17 year old young leaders who give up so much of their valuable time to assist our guiding unit whilst gaining future leadership and organisational skills.

We have had no opportunities to fundraise and are already being advised that membership Fee for each person next year due at the end of February will be £44.

Any donation towards general running of the unit and supporting those who need it most would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards Heather Quayle Unit leader

Rhostyllen Netball Club – in need of new Netballs. The Clerk

Laura Hughes 6 Heather Close Ruabon LL14 6BS

Dear Ms. Belton

I am writing to you with regards to Ruabon’s Community Council Small Grants Scheme.

Last year I wrote to you highlighting how Ruabon High School has been a hub within the community for our netball club named, “ Netball Club” in order to allow the netballers to be joined to the local football team, an already established and well-supported club for future joint fundraising activities.

When Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, our first team will resume playing in the top division of the Wrexham and Flintshire Netball League. I am also delighted to let you know that since my last time of writing, the club now has a second netball team who prior to the lockdown and restrictions earlier this year were competing in the Wrexham Spring Netball League and were top of the table. Therefore, the club has two teams of women who regularly compete and additional members who attend training with the hope of becoming part of one of our teams in the near future. We cannot wait for it to be safe to return to play as we know that our weekly training sessions and games are the highlight of many of our members’ weeks.

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 we have been unable to run our usual annual fundraising event which we use to help fund our league membership and purchase equipment for use throughout the year.

We are very thankful for receiving the grant last year. If we were fortunate to receive a grant this year, we would like to purchase some new equipment for the club such as training balls to

allow us to have enough balls of a suitable standard for the number of members we have each week partaking in drills and games in training.

Thank you for considering our local club for a community grant. We hope the application will be favourably received.

Yours sincerely

Laura Hughes Ruabon Resident and member of Rhostyllen Netball Club

Family Friends – requesting funding. Hope House – requesting funding.

Item 5.2 – Additional Christmas Tree in the South Side of Ruabon

Cllr Giles and Cllr Lowe walked the village on the 11th to search for a suitable place to site an additional tree. A suitable place has been found outside the Cons Club. Cllr Lowe is looking into permission although Paul Tincello mentioned this may be Common Ground. The Christmas Lights Group has asked the Clerk to seek permission from WCBC and to write the Risk Assessment. The tree would need some fencing, would need to be stabilised into the ground and would need battery-powered lights.

Item 5.3 – Community Issues Cllr Davies,

I feel compelled to email you and ask for your help and support to deal with the biggest problem Ruabon Community faces.

Although I have not recently scanned through the minutes of previous Community meeting's I'm well up to date with social media posts about the young people causing anti-social behaviour in our Community and this issue seems to be far more pressing for the people you represent than other issues the Community Council are dealing with.

Without going through every post over the last 6 months we have had numerous reports of youths drinking, taking NOS gas (laughing gas which can be deadly), fighting, causing damage, acting in an anti-social manner and now the latest event that causes a public health issues which in these current times is not acceptable!

You may or may not know that it is commonly known around the youths of WREXHAM borough that Ruabon is the place to go of a Friday and Saturday night. Note all the beer cans in Rocky woods and at the allotments and the old dairy.

5

The community are taking to social media to report and vent their frustrations. Tou may say this is a Police issue and I agree with you partly but the Anti-social Behaviour Act is a civil offence and therefore the local Council need to work with the police to investigate and resolve this matter.

We now need our Councillors to work on the community's behalf and collate the evidence, link in with the Police and Local Council and push for a plan to rid this community of this problem.

I do not advocate violence but I fear the community's patience is running thin and someone will take it upon themselves to deal with what they are faced with; the consequences aren't worth thinking about!

Perhaps we could have a central place to send the videos or written statements of incidents so the relevant authorities can use them as evidence. We need to identify who the youths are. What misery they are causing and options to deal with them.

Individuals cannot do this on their own and we need to gel the community to rid us of this issue. We need our elected Councillors to stand tall and lead our community in this horrible situation.

Please review all the posts people have sent in and lead and support us in this community matter.

Many thanks - Rhys Matthews

Item 7.0 Village Hall Management Group Item 7.1 - Pavilion Boiler – Pavilion Boiler – it seems that the boiler has not been checked in many years, although the Village Hall boiler is on a maintenance contract with British Gas. It was not working earlier this week at all. British Gas have mended it for no charge, but the pump will not continue working forever, I am told. The engineer suggests Central Heating System Cover with Annual Service for at least the first year.

Prices for adding the Pavilion Boiler to a British Gas Maintenance Contract: £43 per month includes annual service and central heating maintenance cover for Monday-Friday. £177 for Annual Service only.

Item 7.2 - Pavilion Meeting: There has been a request to move the meeting from December 9th as JH Davies has another commitment.

Item 7.3 - Legionella Risk Assessment – To make a decision that this would be delayed for the time being. The Village Hall Management Group recommends that Council has an annual water maintenance check and that this is put into the budget. The suggestion to council is to put this on hold and in time, acquire new quotes. In the meantime, staff would be trained. This would then be ready for the re-opening in 2021.

Item 8.0 Planning -

PLANNING RECOMMENDATIONS Planning updates from previous reports: -

P/2020/0152 – 6/3/2020 - PENDING Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Control of Advertisement Regulations 1992

Application for Consent to Display 5 No. Off Site Services Information Signs Related to Ruabon Park Service Station Ruabon Park Service Station James Park Way Ruabon Wrexham

P/2020/0533 - 2/9/2020 - GRANTED 2 Brook House, Railway Terrace, Ruabon Conversion And Extension To Existing Garage To Form Self-Contained Annex Accommodation

P/2020/0643 – 9/10/2020 - PENDING DEMOLITION OF EXISTING BUILDING AND ERECTION OF 8 DETACHED DWELLINGS WILLOW COTTAGE PARK STREET RUABON. Closing date November 10th for comments.

Comments from Geoff Foy – Chairman of Wrexham Area Civic Society - I’ve now had a chance to look at this site and its relationship to the village conservation area. The site is separated from the Park Street terraces in the CA by the village primary school, it has a very narrow frontage and the rear would not impact on views from the CA. The cottage to be demolished has little townscape or heritage value. In my opinion the proposed development of 8 dwellings and the frontage stone wall features flanking the access would have no overall detrimental impact on the character of the CA or its setting, or the approach to the CA along Park Street. The design and access statement could be better written in describing and explaining the proposal and the design of the houses could pick up on elements from the village and the CA, and be more sustainable in its features, but this is a different issues from the impact on the CA. It’ll be interesting to hear the views of the Ruabon CC. (He was sent RCC’s views by Nick following this)

Cheers Geoff

P/2020/0576 – 27/9/2020 – PENDING CONVERSION OF OUTBUILDINGS TO 5 DWELLINGS JAMES FARM RUABON. Comments closed.

LATEST PLANNING APPLICATIONS

P/2020/0673 – 30/10/2020 – PENDING TO OUTLINE PLANNING PERMISSION P/2018/0053 - APPEARANCE, LANDSCAPING, LAYOUT AND SCALE LAND AT RUABON BUSINESS PARK RUABON WREXHAM

P/2020/0681 – 3/11/2020 – PENDING ERECTION OF GARAGE PARK COTTAGE PEN Y LAN RUABON WREXHAM

P/2020/0727 – 18/11/2020 - PENDING OUTLINE APPLICATION FOR THE ERECTION OF 1 NO. DETACHED DWELLING 7

LAND ADJACENT TO THE BUNGALOW WYNNSTAY YARD THE GREEN RUABON WREXHAM

Item 9.0 – Payments - A payment list will be provided at the meeting.

Item 10.0 – General Correspondence – 16.10.2020 Family Friends requesting funding. 22.10.2020 From OVW – Future Audit Arrangements for Town and Community Councils. 23.10.2020 From Keith Sinclair - European Union Settlement Scheme. Information which needs to be passed onto any European Citizens to help them to register under the European Union Settlement Scheme. http://ruaboncommunity.wales/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/European- Union-Settlement-Scheme-letter.pdf 27.10.2020 From OVW Remote Meeting Survey Results 28.10.2020 From OVW Training Dates. 29.10.2020 From OVW WG Electoral Newsletter – October. 2.11.2020 From Network Rail regarding work taking place from Nov 9 to Dec 18. 2.11.2020 From PCSO Rhys Yaxley – Allotments. Asking if CCTV reaches there. 5.11.2020 From JH Davies regarding a covenant on the Rec in Ruabon to prevent building. 5.11.2020 From Andrea Rogers (BCUHB - Primary and Community Care) re Ruabon Medical Centre. 5.11.2020 - Review of County Electoral Arrangements for Wrexham - Final Recommendations 5.11.2020 From Repair Café – see Appendix. 5.11.2020 From Sharon Jones re Accessibility within Ruabon. 6.11.2020 From Marie Russell - Wrexham Town and Community Council Workshop – meeting to discuss issues such as terms of reference for the Wrexham Town and Community Council Forum will take place at 4pm on Thursday, 19 November. 7.11.2020 Email from Daryl Lewis re Streetlight not working for 12 months. Helped with this and sorted. 10.11.2020 Email from Refill Wales. See Appendix. 11.11.2020 Email from Paula Bennion – see Appendix. 12.11.2020 From AVOW - Wrexham Befriending Funding Scheme - Press Release. 13.11.2020 From AVOW – request for a support letter re an application for a small grant of up to £5k to develop a network of food providers and community food-based initiatives. 13.11.2020 From Mai Charles – Minutes from Project Group Meeting 3.11.2020. 16.11.2020 From AVOW - Your Community Your Choice 2020/21. This year we have made £60,000 available from the police commissioner’s fund and the proceeds of crime recovered from criminals. Closing date December 11th. 16.11.2020 From Rhys Matthews to Cllr Dana Davies. See item 5.3 17.11.2020 From OVW - Ministerial Advisory Forum on Ageing (MAFA) - Survey regarding strengthening and advancing Equality and Human Rights in Wales. 18.11.2020 From AVOW asking if Village Hall available for vaccines. 18.11.2020 From WCBC - Consultation - Decarbonisation Action Plan. Would anyone like to take part? The Independent Remuneration Panel draft Annual Report 2021/22 has now been published for consultation and is available on its website and in the Agenda Pack. Councils have until November 23rd to make comments. Please see from page 40.

Matters for Information -

DIGITISATION OF CEMETERY RECORDS

The software has been installed onto the Clerk’s laptop for the transcription of the burial records and the Clerk trained. Cllr B Smith and the Clerk have started transcribing the records, adding photos of memorials.

COUNCILLOR SURGERIES – MEET YOUR COUNCILLOR Please let me know if you are willing to attend a surgery to meet residents, either by Zoom or in the Village Hall. An email was sent out with Village Hall availability. https://1drv.ms/w/s!Auy- rf8yf4Wf7HZfBJJrhv_3h0H7?e=r4PPJT

EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR COUNCILLORS Some councillors have started to use their email accounts. They have uniformity with every councillor having a similar signature and colour scheme to the clerk. The clerk will stop sending to the personal email addresses on November 20th.

VILLAGE HALL CLEANING Cllr Adams and the Groundsman cleaned the Village Hall prior to re-opening last week as the hall reopened on November 9th for certain groups. A cleaning station/shelf will be put up for new cloths, cleaning fluids, gel and the cleaning schedule evidence.

AUDIT Information has been sent in answer to questions from Grant Thornton. No response so far.

IN-HOUSE TRAINING The Clerk will be able to provide interested councillors with training and Q and A sessions on a number of topics. Dates to follow.

PLANTERS Planters have been planted with the colourful displays. Some excess plants have been planted at the Railway Station. Cllr Giles and Cllr Smith are getting on with planting the winter displays. Cllr Sarah Giles and Cllr Bill Smith have been finding places for the 2 redundant planters to go around the village. One might go outside the library on the railings.

WEBSITE The website will be going live next week. Please send in the paragraph about yourself and your photo if not already done so.

RUABON HERITAGE TRAIL Jo Smith is working hard to complete the work on the Ruabon Heritage Trail which will be a very exciting project.

FRIENDS OF RUABON Friends of Ruabon held a Virtual Frost Fayre during November.

COMMUNITY AGENT AND CLERK WORKING IN THE VILLAGE Paul Tincello and the clerk are trying a new idea; to work in the Village Hall and Pavilion on a 9

Tuesday. He will make himself available to residents who might want to see him, following government guidelines and the clerk will also be at the hall on most/some Tuesdays. This also gives us the chance to meet regularly and keep in touch. You are welcome to pop in to see either of us, perhaps send a message first before setting out.

Link to view Time Sheets and Reports of Community Agent - https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auy- rf8yf4Wf6CyOD96vzeZ6LFoN?e=uSCKCw

POLICE REPORT Police Update – Ruabon Ward

NWP Wrexham Rural Incident update – September 2020 – From Police.UK

Anti-social behaviour 11

Burglary 1

Criminal Damage/Arson 1 Drugs 1 Other theft 1 Public Order 7 Robbery 0 Shoplifting 3 Vehicle Crime 0 Violence and Sexual Offences 13 TOTAL 38

DIARY DATES –

Wednesday December 9th – Pavilion meeting about the lease. 7pm. TBC. Wednesday December 16th – Cemetery and Finance Committees 7pm. Wednesday January 13th 2021 – Precept Meeting at 7pm. Wednesday January 27th 2021 – Full Council Meeting at 7pm.

ATTENDANCE RECORDS

Name Full Council Actual Absent with Actual meetings since attendances apologies Attendance May 27th 2020 since (% out of 100) May 27th 2020 NORTH ADAMS Donna 5 5 0 100 DAVIES Dana 5 4 1 80 GILES Sarah 5 5 0 100 HARRIS Andy 5 4 1 80 HUGHES Lorraine 5 3 2 60 JACKSON Elise 5 5 0 100 KAPAS Supriya 5 5 0 100 (Chair) MAZZARELLA 5 1 4 20 Sharon SMITH Bill 5 5 0 100

Vacancy

SOUTH DAVIES Linda 5 5 0 100 Vacancy KELLY Lisa 5 4 1 80 LOWE Joan 5 4 1 80

These figures do not include working group meetings, but only show Full Council or Extra Ordinary Meetings. The rule where a councillor must attend at least one meeting in 6 months (and this year, one meeting since April 22nd) DOES include committees and working groups, so these would be taken into account.

Contact Officer: Helen Belton, Clerk to the Council Tel: 07805 670157

11

APPENDIX From: Cerys Jones Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2020 5:20 PM To: RCW Info Cc: Ella Smillie Subject: £13.2m Repair and Reuse Fund

Good afternoon,

The Welsh Government is inviting Local Authorities and Councils (Town, Village and Community) to bid for its new £13.2m fund to support repair and re-use activities in town centres. This will help accelerate Wales’ shift towards a circular economy and also aims to directly support covid reconstruction in Wales. The government's commitment to this strand of work is further highlighted by support from Hannah Blythyn MS (Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government), as well as the newly published Future Generation Commissioner's 'Manifesto for the Future', which included initiatives such as repair cafes and swap shops in their vision for prosperous Welsh cities.

The closing date for applications is 1st December 2020 and so it's important to move quickly if you wish to apply. With over 6 years' experience between us of facilitating reuse and repair across Wales, we are getting in touch to offer our support in developing an application on your behalf for this fund and maximising its value to your community and the whole of Wales.

What We Can Offer

Benthyg and Repair Cafe Wales are on a mission to make reuse and repair as easy and accessible as buying a pint of milk. Both organisations reduce waste, share skills with local residents and help build community resilience. This fund presents a major opportunity to establish reuse and repair venues as a key feature of the Welsh green recovery; by using our tried and tested policies and processes, we can get these facilities up and running in your community quickly and efficiently.

Many local authorities have buildings which are either empty or under-utilised and turning them into reuse and repair facilities would be a cost-effective way to make the most of this fund, while supporting high street regeneration and the growth of 20 minute communities. However, the fund includes capital and revenue costs which could be used to lease/buy if required as well as fit out high street units and fund project management costs to oversee the delivery. We would be happy to work with you to build further circular economy initiatives into the project plan such as community fridges, school uniform exchanges and zero waste shops.

As well as supporting the growth of the circular economy, this project could be expanded and adapted to accommodate a variety of Welsh government and local authority priorities including but not limited to waste management, environment, property, community, skills & education, poverty, inter-generational work and digital inclusion. We are confident that this project would meet and exceed every aim of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

Repair Cafe Wales and Benthyg already have systems in place to support and monitor our ongoing work; this project would provide an ideal opportunity to measure and monitor the multiple benefits of reuse and repair to communities, including environmental benefits, air-quality, economic resilience, mental and physical wellbeing, and long-term behavioural change. We would also be perfectly placed to gather data around product design and repairability which we would then use to work with manufacturers to improve the longevity of household items. The impact of this kind of research will be greatly increased by the number of communities who are in our network, so we urge all qualifying bodies to work with us and seize this opportunity to create a generation-defining reuse and repair movement around Wales.

Repair Cafe Wales and Benthyg are closely allied with the Welsh Government’s Circular Economy Team and have good insight into the aims, objectives and priorities of this fund and other allied policy areas for the Welsh Government. Both organisations are also very experienced at bid writing for this type of funding and we would be pleased to offer our support to develop your application.

Next Steps

We have begun to draft a template project plan which could easily be included in your application for this fund. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you at the earliest opportunity, to find out how you envisage using this fund within your community, and how we could help you to maximise its impact. We are attaching the application form for information.

Repair Cafe Wales Repair cafés are events run by volunteers who fix local people’s household items for free and teach the owner of the item how to repair their item as the fix is being undertaken. Over the last 30 months Repair Cafes Wales has: • Helped open and support 30 repair cafés across Wales, several of which include other environmental sharing events. Since March alone, we have had 21 requests for new repair cafés in communities across Wales; • Welcomed 12,363 visitors to our repair cafés (c.780 a month); • Recruited 455 active volunteers across Wales; • Saved locals and councils £50,904 in fixed items diverted from landfill over the last 18 months; • Built a recognisable digital presence with over 6,000 social media followers; • Been interviewed for television and radio; • Created a starter kit with 40+ documents to help a community start, and successfully run, a repair café.

Over the last 18 months, we have diverted approximately 16.5 tonnes of waste from landfill. Whilst we reduce waste, we also upskill local people through repair to help build community resilience; we create a safe space to help local people with loneliness, isolation and mental health; and we help change people’s relationships with the items they own to better understand them, bring longevity to the item’s life and tackle our throw-away society.

Benthyg The main purpose of Benthyg is to support resilient communities by creating community-owned hubs where people can donate items they own but don’t need, and borrow items they need but don’t own, and meet to share skills.

Benthyg has been operating in Rumney, since 2017, in which time it has:

• Developed a comprehensive toolkit including 35+ templates and how-to guides which provides a blueprint for new branches to get up and running quickly. • Developed an online borrowing platform which allows service users to search the inventory online and find details and instructions for using items, as well as make reservations and payments prior to collection. This platform can be cloned by new branches. • Opened a second 'click and collect' branch in Splott

We have a waiting list of 18 communities around Wales who want to set up their own Benthyg; our experience thus far indicates that the biggest challenge is finding suitable, central and accessible space which will enable the facility to become quickly embedded within the community. With the high street access afforded by this fund, this challenge will be met, supporting widespread affordable borrowing throughout Wales.

13

If you have any queries on the above or would like to discuss the initiatives further, please let us know and we can arrange a telephone call / online meeting at the earliest convenience.

Best regards,

Cerys & Ella

Repair Cafe Wales Team

Planning Demystified.

Planning Aid Wales’ new flagship online course ‘Planning: From Start to Finish’ has been produced specifically for Town and Community Councils in Wales. This course is a perfect introduction to or refresher on all aspects of the planning system in Wales. Learn when and where you like Our online training is ideal for those who are unable to attend our face-to-face courses. They can be accessed wherever and wherever you need. Learn from the professionals All our courses have been written by chartered Members of the Royal Town Planning Institute and Planning Aid Wales has 40 years’ experience in delivering accessible training. Exceptional value For just £150, all your councillors and staff (<20 users) can access and re-watch the course again and again for a whole year.

Course content

• How planning works • Local Development Plans and Place Plans • How planning applications are decided. • How to respond to planning applications. • The role of Community and Town Councils in planning.

Subscribe now for as little as £7.50 per user per year. For more information, and to subscribe, visit http://training. planningaidwales.org.uk or call 02920 625004

Email from Paula Bennion

This is an idea I’ve put to ruabons neighbourhood group chat. I was wondering whether we can get any help with regards to this idea please however big or small.

Just an idea but I’ve been thinking about maybe possibly setting up something up to help those who may need some extra help this Christmas with everything that’s happened this year. Maybe a drop off station where people can donate things however small to give for children for presents who may go without. Whether this be for families in our village or help neighbouring villages. Families have lost jobs/lost income and they need help as Christmas can be a worry. Can someone provide a safe place? Can we get people to volunteer? I will. Not sure if this will work it’s just a thought.

Email from Refill Wales Refill works by connecting people who are looking for water with thousands of local businesses, community venues, transport hubs and public fountains where they can refill for free.

Anyone can download the free app to find Refill Stations near them where they can refill on the go. Over 20,000 locations have joined the Refill revolution, helping to keep Britain hydrated and free of plastic pollution. Refill offers a free and easy solution for preventing plastic pollution from single- use bottles. If just 1 in 10 Brits Refilled once a week, we’d save around 340 million plastic bottles a year.

Town and Community Councils

There are a lot of things your council can do to support Refill Wales. If you have a large enough community, you can set up your own Refill Scheme. As Refill Wales Manager, I will supply you with all the materials, which include window stickers, postcards and posters in Welsh and English. If you are interested in being involved, I will send you our digital starter pack and once I receive the signed MOU, I can send you our digital resources pack which includes guidance's and social media resources. All of this is free thanks to Welsh Government funding. I am on hand to provide support and advice and we run online training for our Refill Local Champions.

If you are in a small community, you can support by including information about Refill in your community newsletter, social media posts or on your website. We are a behaviour change campaign working to try and encourage people to drink tap water and to use reusable water bottles on a daily basis whilst on the go. I will happily write you content to include in any newsletters or community newspapers. If you would like our press release template, please let me know.

If there are a couple of businesses in your community, please tell them about Refill Wales and encourage them to sign up to the Refill App. I can assist in signing them up if you let me know their details.

15