Leisure Centre Saved !

Today I attended a meeting of the council`s Executive Board, where the leisure review was up for a decision. Before the meeting i had been assured that apart from the pool the rest of the centre would be re-designed & refurbished but that the pool was to be closed. I argued for the retention of a pool on the grounds it would be both costly & logisticly difficult for residents of Plas Madoc to swim elsewhere. Also their was no way the council was going to tackle the growing level of obesity by removing a pool from Plas Madoc. The executive Board in their wisdom decided to back my argument and a pool will now be kept at Plas Madoc.

I would like to thank residents of both Plas Madoc and the rest of wrexham county for responding to the leisure review, without you i would have been arguing on my own and it would not have been possible to win the argument.

An Abdication of Responsibility

Yet again another Chief Officer produces a report for Councillors requesting he has more powers under delegated powers. This time it is the Chief Planning Officer. In the past councillors have given more of their powers away each time a chief officer requests more powers for himself whilst at the same time taking more allowances every year, this has got to stop! I am sick of councillors moaning to me they have no power when they keep on giving power away. This time it is over planning applications. The chief officer wants to decide on all planning applications without them having to go to committee. Not only does this remove the last ounce of democracy from planning, but also opens the chief officer up to bribes and making decisions which the public will have to live with long after he is gone This is wrong!

I urge WrexhamCouncillors not to give up their powers each time an officer feels he wants more, we are elected to represent our constituents and make sure the council is run for them and not in the interests of un-elected Chief Officers.