AGENDA ITEM NO.5

REPORT TO: Economy, Business and Investment Scrutiny Committee

REPORT NO: HCCS / 133 /12S

DATE: 3 October 2012

LEAD MEMBER: Lead Member Environment – Councillor R J Dutton OBE; Lead Member Economic Development & Regeneration – Councillor Neil Rogers

CONTACT OFFICER: Suzanne Chaloner (292179)

SUBJECT: Key Gateways into Wrexham

WARD: N/A

1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

To consider the Authority’s approach to Wrexham’s ‘key gateways’ in order to enable the Committee to form a view as to whether the Authority makes good use of them in promoting Wrexham and its economy.

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The report presents information from Environment and Assets & Economic Development Departments which demonstrates that there is currently no formally agreed Authority-wide definition of the County Borough’s ‘key gateways’.

The report provides detailed information on the Departments’ approach to what they would informally identify as key gateways, which includes:

 Environment Department maintenance of highways, Streetscene, grounds maintenance, grass cutting, weed spraying and Wales In Bloom;

 Information on the current and potential levels of roundabout sponsorship as well as those roundabouts not available because of planning restrictions;

1  Current approach to County Boundary signs

 Assets & Economic Development’s future approach to the key ‘hubs’ that will be identified in the Destination Management Plan;

It also provides information on other gateways in the County Borough including the Bus Station and the 5 rail stations.

3 RECOMMENDATIONS

3.1 To consider the information contained in the report regarding the Authority’s current approach to ‘key gateways’;

3.2 To consider the effectiveness of the approach and to make recommendations thereon.

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

(i) To inform the committee’s consideration of whether the Authority is making best use of its key gateways into the County Borough.

4. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

4.1 The Topic Selection Form considered by the Committee in July stated that the purpose and outcome of considering the issue of ‘key gateways’ was for the Committee to review the Authority’s definition of ‘key gateways’ and to form a view as to whether the Authority makes good use of them in promoting Wrexham.

4.2 The Committee agreed that it would need to consider the following:

 Current view of the Authority as to what constitutes a ‘key gateway

 What is the Authority’s current approach and how effective is it?

 How could we use ‘key gateways’ to promote Wrexham (taking into account resource information and legal / highway / Welsh Government restrictions)

4.3 The following information provides a summary of the information currently available from the Head of Environment, Head of Assets and Economic Development and the Head of Community Well-being and Development and is intended as a starting point for members of the Committee to consider the issues and make recommendations regarding the Authority’s approach.

2 Current view of the Authority as to what constitutes a ‘Key Gateways’

4.4 There is currently no formal Authority-wide definition of what constitutes a key gateway into the County Borough. However, some individual departments do consider the following as informal definitions:

 The Environment Department informally considers the following as the ‘key routes’ into Wrexham when organising its work:

A483 / A5 (Trunk Roads) B5445 Old Chester Road A5634 Holt Road A525 Marchwiel A528 Overton A5069 Worthenbury A525 Ruthin Road / Coedpoeth A539 Llangollen A541 Mold Road

 Assets & Economic Development Department does not have any formal definition of key routes, however the Destination Management Plan (currently in draft form) does identify three key ‘ hubs’ or ‘attractors’ into the County Borough – the World Heritage Site (Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal), Erddig Hall and Chirk Castle, Chirk and the Ceiriog Valley as a combined hub.

Other Gateways During previous discussions at Committee during work programme planning, Members have also identified other ‘gateways’ as:

 Bus Station King Street bus station is owned by the Council.

 Wrexham’s Railway Stations There are 5 railway stations in the County Borough – Wrexham General, Wrexham Central, Ruabon, Gwersyllt and Chirk.

Current approach & effectiveness

Environment Department - Maintenance of key routes Maintenance and service standards are applied according to road classification. The informal ‘key routes’ do not formally receive additional maintenance.

Trunk Roads 4.5 North & Mid Wales Trunk Road Agency is responsible for the Trunk Roads (A483 and A5) on behalf of the Welsh Government. All work carried out by local authorities is on its behalf and is subject to a Partnership Agreement, a Service Provider Schedule and an agreed Procurement Strategy.

3 4.6 WCBC submits an annual procurement strategy for works and services which it will deliver to the Agency Manager for approval. This approved procurement strategy forms the basis of the works which the Agency will agree to fund and is in effect a Service Level Agreement for the works WCBC will carry out on its behalf. In terms of grass verge maintenance, this must be organised around the 6-week summer embargo. 2 cuts are permitted and are generally carried out in June and September/October.

4.7 Officers have provided the following information about expenditure:

Trunk Road Expenditure 2011/12

Activity Expenditure Comment Routine Maintenance £402,000 Includes £221,000 for verge maintenance activities (grass cutting, weed spraying etc). Structural Maintenance £224,000 Patching, safety fencing repairs etc Winter Service £75,000 Capital Improvements £313,000 Carriageway Resurfacing Schemes Street Lighting £41,000 Includes energy costs

Trunk Road Expenditure 2012/13

Routine maintenance expenditure is forecast to increase by approximately £100k for 2012/13 to account for revised operational rates.

Structural maintenance and winter service expenditure will be variable due to the level of reactive maintenance demands.

Street Lighting expenditure is only likely to vary due to energy price fluctuations.

4.8 Litter picking is a function of the local authority and as such is not individually funded by the Welsh Government with the exception of the activities which accompany the 2 planned annual grounds maintenance activities. Officers have advised that Wrexham County Borough Council recognised the requirement to maintain a high standard of litter collection on the Trunk Road and subsequently allocated an annual sum of £50k which maintains a team of 2 litter pickers to undertake a dedicated function including litter bin maintenance in the lay-bys as an annual activity. Experience has demonstrated that to achieve an aesthetically acceptable standard a continuous dedicated 2 man team is required. Any relaxation on this commitment has a noticeable impact on the visual cleanliness of the network and detracts from the high standard of verge maintenance activities.

4 Highways maintenance (capital) 4.9 As a highway authority, the Council has a statutory duty to maintain the highway. The Highway Asset Management Plan (HAMP) was agreed by Executive Board in June 2010 and sets out how the Council responds to its statutory duty and sets out how asset management principles are applied to the highway network. The supporting programme of capital expenditure based upon the principles of the Local Transport Delivery Strategy and the HAMP is agreed annually by Executive Board and has previously been reported to the Environment & Regeneration Scrutiny Committee on a 6 monthly basis.

Streetscene 4.10 Executive Board agreed the establishment of the Authority’s Steetscene Service in 2006 with the agreed focus on making Wrexham cleaner, greener, safer and tidier, i.e. to make Wrexham look and feel like a place where people want to live, work and visit, and that Streetscene is about improving public accessibility to improved services, not about departments and structures.

As such, Streetscene pulls together services from a number of departments.

4.11The total net revenue cash limited budget for Streetscene (street cleansing, grounds maintenance and reactive highway maintenance, including seasonal staff) is:  2011/12 - £3,236,528  2012/13 - £3,237,073.

4.12 The current Streetscene that would seem to impact directly on what the Committee has previously indicated are contributors to the quality of our key gateways are listed at Appendix A. In particular Members may wish to consider the following as particularly relevant to this report -

Highways Highways maintenance - A & B roads mechanically swept once a month

Grounds Maintenance and Grass cutting on the highway Grass cutting in general is dependent upon road classification and location, e.g. rural/urban. There are three classifications of grass cutting –

 Ornamental (max height 30mm) e.g. Llwyn Isaf  Amenity (max height 100mm) e.g. grassed open space; football pitches  Rough grass (max height 250mm)

Urban grass cutting, amenity grass and other grounds maintenance is carried out by Streetscene staff who are supplemented by temporary contracted operatives employed generally between April and September.

Grass cutting on highway verges (under 30mph) is carried out by Streetscene staff. Maintenance of amenity and rough grass will generally equate to 4-6 cuts per year, dependent on weather.

5 Grass cutting on highways verges (in excess of 30mph) was carried out by staff within the Environment Department up until August 2012. However because of the high cost of the repair and maintenance of the necessary machinery, this work is now being carried out by an external contractor – an 18 month contract commenced in August 2012. Officers anticipate there will be savings as a result of this reorganisation. These verges will be cut twice per year – (May/June and September/October).

Officers from Parks & Rights of Way have also advised that there has been feedback from some residents voicing concern that the Authority should take greater account of the importance of highway verges for the wildlife and biodiversity of the County Borough. While the cutting of the highway verges is important from a safety perspective, there is an argument for reducing the number of cuts in areas of high conservation value, which would benefit the wildlife and make the selected verges colourful across the summer months.

Weed Spraying All footway channels, and areas of likely weed growth within the bounds of the public highway are subject to treatment of herbicide by mechanical sprayer application commencing in Spring of each year. This process is then repeated periodically throughout the growing season to reduce and control weed growth. This process is supported by the manual treatment and removal of weeds by area based beat sweepers. The weeds are treated with a contact herbicide and therefore the effectiveness is dictated by the weather conditions. Mechanical sweeping operations prevent the build up of detritus in the channels of the carriageway and assist the process.

4.13 Homes Environment & Communities Scrutiny Committee (HECSC) considered the 2011/12 performance against service standards in July. In October, HECSC will be considering whether to establish a Task & Finish Group to review the current service standards.

The report and minutes of the July meeting of HECSC note that 2 of these service standards had not been met in 2011/12 –

 Street cleansing, litter and leaf clearance ( the ‘off-track’ measure relates to the response time for requests for inspections being 4 days against a target of 3 days);

 Toilet cleaning (the off-track measure relates to the cleaning of a dirty toilet in response to a report being 2 days rather than 4 hours. This is because the job is commissioned by ticket as opposed to phone call. This service standard has not been met in previous years for the same reason.)

Other highways issues Roundabout Sponsorship Portfolio 4.14 The Authority has previously recognised the potential for harnessing private sector funds as a means of developing, improving and maintaining roundabouts on key routes in and around Wrexham. Information available on the

6 Council’s website and in the Environment Department’s Roundabout Sponsorship Portfolio advises companies that sponsorship offers the opportunity to promote their company name, logo and website and highlight their particular service or product. If sponsoring a new roundabout, companies can also have an input into the design of the roundabout.

4.15 In terms of marketing, Officers have advised that in addition to information on the website, brochures are sent to interested companies. At the time of writing, there are signs on some roundabouts giving details of who to contact to sponsor the roundabout, and the intention is that all eligible roundabouts will have these signs. Officers are also intending to place an article in the Evening Leader to raise awareness of availability.

4.16 The Authority’s current Roundabout Sponsorship Portfolio lists 12 roundabouts as available for sponsorship. Planning permission has already been granted in these locations, as commercial signage and buildings are already the predominant characteristic of the surrounding area.

4.17 The current cost of roundabout sponsorship is £1 k, £2k or £3k depending on the location of the roundabout. Roundabouts can be sponsored for up to 3 years initially, with an option to extend after this time.

Currently only 1 of these is sponsored: Location Currently Sponsored / Cost Hugmore Lane R & R Engineering until 2013 / £3k Bridge Road South, Industrial Estate No / £3k Plas Coch, Homebase 1 No / £3k Plas Coch, Homebase 2 No / £3k Bodhyfryd, Asda Roundabout No / £3k Holt Road, Tesco Roundabout No / £3k St Giles Park, Gwersyllt No / £3k Wrexham Industrial Estate, Easter No / £3k Roundabout Berse Road No /£3k Rhostyllen A5152, Wrexham By Pass No /£2k Wrexham Technology park, No /£2k Croesnewydd Rd Plas Coch / Glyndwr No /£TBA

5 further roundabouts will be available for sponsorship (pending planning approval) as a result of the new Wrexham Link Road.

4.18 Restrictions on sponsorship: The Environment Department holds a list of a further 19 roundabouts in the County Borough which are not available for sponsorship because of planning restrictions in relation to them being classified as rural, residential, or in a conservation area. Advice from the Head of Communities and Well-being gives the following as explanation of these classifications:

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 Rural – signs in rural locations would introduce clutter into areas where there is presently none and encourage owners of adjoining fields to apply for similar signs that would be difficult to resist.

 Residential – Signs located in residential areas would introduce an intrusive commercial feature that would detract from the appearance of the areas and could encourage adjacent householders to apply for signs that would be difficult to resist.

 Conservation – Conservation areas are specially protected for their appearance. The Council has a duty to preserve or enhance the appearance of these signs.

Roundabouts not available for sponsorship Site Location Reason for refusal of sponsorship 1 Rossett - A484 Rural 2 Rossett - A483 Rural 3 Rossett - Chester Road Rural 4 Pandy/Acton Rural 5 Smithy Lane/Barkers Lane Residential and too small 6 Borras Park Road/Llan-y-pwll Rural 7 Holt Road/Llan-y-pwll Link Road Rural 12 Halton Chirk Open countryside / Rural 13 Chirk By-pass Rural 14 Chirk A5 Rural 15 Ruabon A483 Rural 16 Ruabon A483 Rural 17 Ruabon A539 Llangolln Road Rural 30 Chester Road/Powell Road Conservation area 36 Queensway/Smithfield Road Residential 38 Chester Road/Prices Lane Residential/attractive open fields 39 Borras Road/Dean Road Residential and too small 40 Holt Road/Cefn Road Residential/attractive 41 Holt Road Residential

4.19 Officers from the Environment Department are hoping to work with Community Well-Being & Development Department in the coming months to review the status of some of these roundabouts.

Applications for planning permission for sponsorship of roundabouts costs £330 and lasts 5 years.

Wales in Bloom / Bulb planting on key routes

4.20 In recent years, the Environment Department has carried out a programme of bulb planting along highways. Local members are consulted on the location of the planting.

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4.21 Wrexham has entered Wales in Bloom each year since 2007/8. The entry follows a designated showcase ‘route’ across Wrexham and into the Town Centre (which must be included in the entry each year) and so although the route does not focus exclusively on what might be defined as a ‘key gateway’ the route will by necessity include parts of gateways into the Town Centre. As such, gateway routes do benefit from improvement works as a result of the Wales in Bloom work. A list of routes is attached at Appendix B.

4.22 The competition focuses on the work of communities to improve their local environment, in partnership with the Authority and other interested groups. Work includes environmental clean ups, litter picking, tree planting, planting and improvement of shrub and annual beds, wildflower and bulb planting, recycling work, painting and improvement of grot spots and raising of environmental awareness. Wales in Bloom aims to leave a legacy of sustainable improvements in its wake, with the work undertaken with communities encouraging communities to carry on with their work afterwards.

4.23 The Wales in Bloom entry is resource intensive for a small number of staff from Landscape section and the Parks, Countryside and Rights of Way Manager. It is also resource intensive for Streetscene staff time for short periods and as a consequence route areas will get better treatment by Streetscene during competition periods (June/July/August).

4.24 In addition, the Tidy Towns Grant (Welsh Government), while covering a larger remit that just Wales in Bloom, has historically underpinned the cost of works (£10-£15k) enabling the competition entry. Tidy Towns funding is likely to come to an end in 2013 though the Welsh Government has not made a decision yet.

County Boundary Signs 4.25 There are currently 21 County Boundary signs located at points across the A and B classified road network in Wrexham. The design of County boundary signs is prescribed within the Traffic Signs Manual, The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. The regulations contain a series of permitted variants including the addition of a phrase (local panel) denoting an item of local geographical or historical interest. Any departure from the prescribed regulations requires special authorisation from the Welsh Government.

4.26 3 of the 21 signs have recently been replaced following the Executive Board decision of 31 January 2012 (Executive Board report HE/02/12 (31 January 2012) ‘Wrexham County Borough Boundary Signs’) to include reference to ‘Home of Glyndwr University’. These signs are at A483 Wrexham/Cheshire boundary; A483 Wrexham/Shropshire boundary; A541 Wrexham/Flintshire Boundary.

The cost of replacing these signs was £2306 + vat. However, it should be noted that these works involved the replacement of the bottom panels and not the entire sign assembly.

9 The amendments were also completed as part of the cyclic maintenance of the A483 (i.e. grass cutting). The £2306 does not therefore include any costs for Traffic Management, which given the locations of these signs would have been considerable had the works not been scheduled to coincide with other maintenance.

The remaining 18 signs state ‘Wrexham County Borough / Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam’.

4.27 As reported to Executive Board in January 2012, there is currently no prescribed programme or budget for the renewal of WCBC’s County Boundary signs. Replacements are carried out on a needs must basis (i.e. poor condition, damage, etc. and funded through the Environmental Department’s cash limited highway maintenance revenue budget.

4.28 Officers from Parks/Countryside & Rights of Way have advised that they will be exploring possibilities of improving some gateway entrances. Although there is no allocated budget for such a programme, it is hoped that an increase in the take up of roundabout sponsorship together with any sponsorship fee for any related signage could fund these improvements. As with roundabouts, maintenance requirements would need to be taken into consideration when costing such works.

Assets & Economic Development 4.29 The national agency Visit Wales (VW) has set up 4 regional partnerships to lead the development and promotion of different geographical parts of the country. Tourism Partnership North Wales (TPNW) is the regional body for North Wales. As part of their strategic plans VW and TPNW have asked all local authorities to draw up an ambitious destination management plan and partnership for their area.

4.30 Assets and Economic Development Department are currently finalising a 5 year Destination Management Plan (DMP) (2012-17) and supporting Action Plan which aims to improve and grow the visitor economy of Wrexham County Borough.

As outlined in paragraph 4.4 (above) the DMP focuses on three key hubs for visitors in the County Borough. The draft Plan proposes 6 projects:

Project 1: Investment in key Hubs  World Heritage Site  National Trust – Erddig Hall and Chirk Castle  Ceiriog Valley, Chirk and Chirk Castle

Project 2: Project Two: An Events Strategy for the Town of Wrexham  Seek to make more of the history and heritage of the town and make links to other parts of the County Borough

Project 3: Visitor Accommodation Development

10  Encouragement of existing and new businesses to improve the quality of their facilities and service

Project 4: A Sense of Place  Develop a stronger sense of Wrexham CB as a place, celebrating the borderlands story as well as its Welsh roots;

Project 5: Visitor Management  Timely and inspiring information, on and offline.

Project 6: Partnerships and Performance  Establishing strong partnerships that work well together and can inspire each other to work towards common goals and deliver tangible results;

Further detail will be available when the draft DMP and Action Plan are considered by Executive Board (currently scheduled for November 2012).

Other Gateways King Street Bus station 4.31 In 2003 the bus station was refurbished with funding from the Welsh Government. Cleaning of toilets and inside the bus station is carried out by the Council’s facilities management. Cleaning inside the bus station is carried out by the Authority: cleaning staff are on site Mon-Fri 6am – 6.15pm and Saturday between 7am -12,15pm and 4pm – 6pm giving a total of 48.5 staff cleaning hours. Cleaning outside the Bus Station on King Street is carried out by the Town Centre Team (2 shifts of 4 operatives cover the town centre between 5am – 7pm).

4.32 In March 2012, confirmation was received from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) that the Council would receive £1.5m from the Welsh European Funding Office for public realm works (street works, lighting, furniture) in the King Street regeneration area. Works are expected to commence in June 2013 and be completed by October 2013.

4.33 Members of the Committee have previously commented on the lack of signage and information boards at the bus station for people arriving into the Town Centre.

Wrexham’s Railway Stations 4.34 Network Rail owns the rail infrastructure and station buildings, with Arriva Trains Wales as the managing tenant. As such, Arriva Trains Wales is responsible for minor maintenance and cleansing of stations and platform areas, with Network Rail retaining the responsibility for major maintenance and for the cleanliness and litter-picking of track areas, sidings, etc. .

4.35 Network Rail have advised that its cleaning schedule for Wrexham’s five rail station track areas in accordance with its 2012/13 Wales Route Station Litter Clearance Programme is as follows:

Wrexham Central:

11 Cleans per year: 6 Last Clean: 29th July 2012 Next Planned Clean: 23rd September 2012

Wrexham General: Cleans per year: 13 Last Clean: 26th August 2012 Next Planned Clean: 23rd September 2012

Ruabon: Cleans per year: 1 Last Clean: 6th March 2012 Next Planned Clean: 6th March 2013

Chirk: Cleans per year: 1 Last Clean: 6th March 2012 Next Planned Clean: 6th March 2013

Gwersyllt: Cleans per year: 6 Last Clean: 5th August 2012 Next Planned Clean: 30th September 2012

4.36 An enquiry has been logged with Arriva Trains Wales regarding the cleaning schedule for Wrexham’s five rail stations/platforms. At the time of writing, this information had not been received.

4.37 The Environment Department has advised that as part of Wales In Bloom, the Authority has encouraged Arriva to improve the weeding, maintenance and visual appearance of the station.

Summary 4.38 Information from the Environment and Assets & Economic Development Departments show that there is currently no formally agreed Authority-wide definition of the County Borough’s ‘key gateways’ and that while departments are mindful of informally identified key routes, there is no enhanced standard of maintenance applied to these routes. Monitoring of the Streetscene Service by the HECSC has indicated that current standards are generally being achieved.

There is currently no work being undertaken to ‘promote’ the County Borough on what may be defined as key routes other that changes to 3 County Boundary signs and the work being undertaken regarding increasing the sponsorship of roundabouts.

4.39 Policy Framework – The terms of reference of this Committee are aligned with the Council’s strategic theme ‘Economy’ as set out in the Council Plan. The

12 scrutiny committee has scheduled consideration of this issue because of the potential impact on potential businesses and visitors to the County Borough.

4.40 Budget – There are no budget implications arising directly from this report. However there may be budget implications arising from any recommendations that will need to be considered. The Head of Finance has commented that the areas being considered are discretionary services and as such it is important that additional expenditure is not incurred in the current economic climate, unless it is directly linked to the priority outcomes in the Council Plan. If areas are selected for additional attention, then consideration must also be given to what can be ceased.

4.41 Legal – There are no legal implications arising from this report.

4.42Staffing – There are no staffing implications arising from this report.

4.43 Equality/Human Rights –.This report provides information on current practices and does not require an Equality Impact Assessment.

4.44 Risks – Not applicable for a work programme planning report.

5. CONSULTATION

5.1 Not applicable

6. EVALUATION OF OPTIONS

6.1 There are no options included in this report. It is anticipated that options for further consideration may arise from the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations.

BACKGROUND PAPERS LOCATION WEBSITE INFO. Report of the Chief Environment Council website http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/Minutes Officer (CEnO/20/10) of 29 June Data/ExBoard/ex29062010a.htm 2010 – ‘Highway Asset Management Plan’

Report of Lead Member for Council website http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/Minutes Environment (HE/07/12s) of 11 Data/HomesEnvCom/Ho11072012a July 2012 ‘Streetscene Standards htm Performance’

Report of Head of Environment Council website http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/Minutes (HE/02/12) of 31 January 2012 Data/ExBoard/ex31012012a.htm ‘WCBC Signs’

13 Appendix A Current Streetscene Service Standards as agreed 1 January 2009

Service Area Standards agreed by Members Target Response Time (Working Days) 1 Abandoned Cars /  To issue a notice on those vehicles identified as 3 days Vehicles abandoned within 3 days.

2 Street Cleansing, Litter  We will carry out an inspection within 3 working days. 3 and Leaf Clearance  Mechanical Sweeping : o Class A & B Roads will be swept every month o Class C Roads and roads in built up areas will be swept every 3 months o Rural country roads, with low traffic volumes, serving low density populated areas will be swept annually  Footways : o Town Centre footways to be swept daily o Other areas to be swept on a six week cycle

3 Dead Animals  We will remove dead animals from the highway or 12 hours other WCBC land within 12 hours.

4 Fly Posting / Graffiti  We will remove offensive/hate graffiti/fly posting on 4 hours Removal Council owned property within 4 hours.

14 Service Area Standards agreed by Members Target Response Time (Working Days)

 We will remove other graffiti/fly posting within 5 working days.

 We will offer to remove other graffiti/fly posting on private property within 5 working days. 5 days

 Where we are not able to remove the graffiti, we will inform the customer of what is happening within 5 working days.

5 Fly Tipping  We will remove fly tipping on Council land (including 24 hours Housing land) within 24 hours.

 We will contact owners of private open land to request that fly tipping is removed and, if it is not, take enforcement action against the land owner where possible.

 Where we have been unable to remove the fly tipping, we will inform the customer of what is happening within 5 working days.

6 Toilet Cleaning  We will ensure that all public toilets are kept clean and open during the hours stated.

15 Service Area Standards agreed by Members Target Response Time (Working Days)  We will clean any dirty toilets reported within 4 hours. 4 hours  We will carry out urgent toilet repairs within 24 hours and routine repairs will be inspected within 5 working days. 24 hours 5 days 7 Bus Shelters Council owned Bus Shelters

 We will investigate the problem within 2 working days.

 We will inform the customer of what is happening within 5 working days.

 We will clean Bus Shelters every 6 months.

1. ‘Adshel’ Bus Shelters (contractor owned & maintained) Contract response times:- Cleaning – every 10 days Emergency damage – will be attended within 6 hours & made safe within 24 hours. Broken glass – removed within 1 working day. Glazing repairs – within 3 working days. Graffiti – removed within 2 working days.

16 Service Area Standards agreed by Members Target Response Time (Working Days) 8 Gulley Emptying  Gulleys in known flooding areas to be cleaned twice per year.  All other gulleys to be cleaned every two years.  Cleaning means emptying gulleys, jetting etc.

9 Reactive highway works  Emergency highway repairs to have an immediate inc. winter maintenance response.

 Other repairs – A response to the customer within 5 working days.

10 Street furniture  Repairs – A response to the customer within 5 working days. 5 days

11 Street Lighting  We will repair street lighting within 5 working days 5 days from the point of complaint where it is the Council’s responsibility. 24 hours  In urgent /emergency cases we will repair within 24 hours.

17 Service Area Standards agreed by Members Target Response Time (Working Days) 12 Street Name Signs  We will provide one Street Name Plate, in good repair on each street/road. If a sign is missing, we will replace as soon as possible (the Council have no control over the manufacturers).

13 Grass cutting  We will carry out an inspection within 3 working days from receipt of the complaint.

 We will respond to the complainant within 5 working days.

Routine Standards  Grass cutting is determined by cutting height : o Ornamental Grass - Max. height 30mm o Amenity Grass - Max. height 100mm o Rough Grass - Max. height 250mm

 Standard of cuts on verges determined by road category i.e. trunk road or other highway.  Council owned hedges will be cut twice a year.

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Appendix B

Wales In Bloom Routes

2007/8 Route- Wales in Bloom- Alyn Waters Visitor Centre, NEWI, Caia Park, Bellevue Park, Victoria Allotments, Victoria School. Award Silver

2008/9 Route- Wales in Bloom- Rossett, Gresford, Prices Lane,Wrexham Town Centre, Bellevue Park, Alyn Waters Visitor Centre, Gwersyllt. Award Silver Gilt

2009/10 Route- Wales in Bloom- Ysgol Hooson, Rhos, Rhos Village, Ponciau Park, Stryt Las Park, Vauxhall Industrial Estate, Crematorium, Rhostyllen, private garden, Esclusham, Eagles Meadow, Wrexham Town Centre. Award Silver Gilt

2010/11 Route- Wales in Bloom- Froncysyllte Community Centre, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Trevor Community Centre and old railway line, Cefn Mawr Ebenezer Chapel, Cefn Mawr Juniors, Ty Mawr Country Park, Bellevue Park, Wrexham Town Centre. Award Silver Gilt.

2011/12 Route- Wales in Bloom and Britain in Bloom- Erlas House gardens, Borras Park Infants, Acton Park, Nightingale House, Glwyndwr University, Westleigh Gardens, Crescent rd, Wrexham Town Centre. Award Silver Gilt in both competitions, first in Wales in Bloom.

2012/13 Route- Wales in Bloom- Johnstown, Community Garden, Stryt Las Park, Pentre Bychan Crematorium, Nant Mill Visitor Centre, Coedpoeth, Victoria Junior School, Westleigh gardens, Rhosddu, Crescent rd, Wrexham Town Centre

Advantages of Wales in Bloom and Britain in Bloom Competition  Wrexham Town Centre and surrounding areas has benefitted hugely from the work- painted street furniture, floral displays, new planting. During the 5 years of the competition the Town Centre has looked consistently good, feedback from visitors to the Town and local community has been very good.  Cleanliness of route and Town Centre has been very high, directly due to the hard work of Streetscene staff.  Community groups have enjoyed being part of the work and have carried out some very good work.  The cost of the work is not particularly high, apart from man hours of Streetscene staff and landscape staff.  Good PR and news paper coverage.  Feel good factor when we do well for staff and community.  Raises standards of cleanliness, flower beds, general environment and pushes Streetscene staff to achieve what is needed, through the goal of a judging day.

Disadvantages of Wales in Bloom and Britain in Bloom Competition  Uses high amount of a few staff’s time (Landscape section and Parks, Countryside and Rights of Way Manager.  Uses for short periods high amounts of Streetscene staff time.  There is a cost to the work.  The route areas will get better treatment by Streetscene than other areas of Wrexham.

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