CALLS are mounting for action to be taken to plug the gender gap on Wrexham Council.

Currently only 10 out of Wrexham’s 52 councillors are women, a level of 19 per cent which is below the Welsh average.

There is also only one woman on the local authority’s executive board out of a membership of 10.

It comes despite there being a gender split of almost 50/50 among the county borough’s population.

An event was held by a cross-party group of female politicians on Sunday (March 8) to mark International Women’s Day.

It was aimed at encouraging more women to stand at the next local elections in 2022.

Following the event, Labour group leader Dana Davies has challenged the council’s ruling independent/Conservative administration to do more to promote equality.

Speaking at an executive board meeting held on Tuesday, she said: “I think there’s more that we can do as a whole council to recognise the 20 per cent of women members and wonder whether there’s an additional commitment the administration can make.

“At the moment I’m conscious as I’m looking at Cllr (Joan) Lowe and you’re the only woman representative on the executive board.

“I’m sure you would appreciate some more company on the executive and support.

“We have independent thinking and extremely intelligent women within your administration, so if you could consider that going forward as well, there is an opportunity for more of a gender balance across the executive board.”

The issue was raised as the administration discussed the council’s strategic equality plan.

Calls to increase the number of female councillors were backed by Cllr Lowe, who is the authority’s lead member for health and adult social care and deputy leader of the Wrexham Independents group.

She also pointed out there are currently no women in council leader Mark Pritchard’s separate independent grouping, despite it having the largest number of members.

She said: “Our main thrust with women out there is to get them more involved to get a higher percentage on the council.

“Once we’ve got a higher percentage on the council hopefully then we’ll have the potential of them leading in other areas.

“If we look at Cllr Pritchard’s group, they haven’t got a female member in their group at all.

“In my group, we’re nearly at 50 per cent but I think our main thrust is how do we get more females interested?”

In response, Cllr Pritchard acknowledged the absence of women in his group and jokingly invited Cllr Davies to join them.

He also said he agreed with calls for more female councillors to come forward.

Addressing the Labour leader, he said: “I wouldn’t disagree with what you’ve said and the statement you’ve made here this morning.

“There is a process for this to take place and I think it should take place because it would be a very good debate.

“You could look at a task and finish group, you could look at a workshop, you could ask scrutiny to look at it and I would ask you to consider that to go through as it would bring it to the top.”

Executive board members voted to approve the equality plan at the end of the debate.

It includes proposals to improve the level of diversity in local democracy by encouraging more candidates from different backgrounds.