Flower sensors save council £32k

Alec Doyle – Local democracy reporter

Smart sensors saved a Welsh council £32,000 by reducing how much city centre flower beds needed watering through the summer, according to a new report.

The latest review of Wrexham’s Smart Towns Initiative – renamed in the report as Smart City Initiative – shows that during a seven-month pilot of moisture sensors in city centre flower beds, Wrexham County Borough Council reduced the amount of water used per day by 1,000 litres and spent three hours less every day tending to the plants.

Moisture sensors

Over seven months that data saved the council £32,000. It is just the latest way that technology is transforming Wrexham under the scheme.

Using a £102,000 package from the Welsh Government – consisting of  a £72,000 grant plus £30,000 of technology gifted to the authority – Wrexham has continued to spearhead Wales’ Smart Towns/Cities programme.

In addition to the moisture sensors, Wrexham has installed real-time flood sensors that alert officers when water levels rise in the culvert behind the historic St Giles’ Church, allowing protective action to be taken more quickly.

Cleaner

The council is now exploring the possibility of installing flood monitoring sensors at flooding hot-spots including Bangor-on Dee, Marchweil, Acton, Gresford and Rhostyllen.

The Smart City programme has also seen digital information touch-screens installed across Wrexham as part of a digital placemaking partnership with Menter Môn and Wales’ first smart benches – seats offering free USB and wireless phone charging points across the city with batteries recharged by solar power.

The council has also installed bins sensors that plot waste collection routes for public bins based on how full they are to keep public areas cleaner and more pleasant.

Since 2021 Wrexham has been at the forefront of the Smart initiative, installing sensors across the city to monitor car parking, footfall and feedback points to register customer satifaction.

Last year in addition to pilots around bins, flooding and flowerbeds, Wrexham Council also introduced CO2 monitors at Plas Coch Primary School to help monitor the air quality within the school, fitted sound and air quality sensors in council buildings and will use sensors on bin lorries to identify where mobile phone blackspots are in Wrexham so that phone companies can fill any gaps across the county borough.

Costs

It has also digitised rota management in its Abbey Road Transport depot, saving around £6,000 in reduced admin costs.

“The Smart City initiative has been developing for 28 months now,” said the report by the Town Centre Task and Finish Group.

“It has gained momentum from businesses, Wrexham University, Ambition North Wales and Welsh Government. Wrexham is now seen as a national leader in implementing technology to improve user experience and assist pressures faced by council services. ‘

“The pilots within the council demonstrate the potential for a transformation in how its services operate. The technologies deployed across the county borough and the evidence of efficiencies and cost savings made by using data-led approaches will hopefully provide a better service in the future.”

Councillors on Wrexham’s Employment, Business and Investment Scrutiny Committee will consider the report’s findings in full on Wednesday, January 8.