Changing Negative Perceptions Of Wrexham
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Anyone seen this story on the leader website ‘Wrexham’s ‘dubious honour’ in worst places to live list’:
The Leader – News from Wrexham & Flintshire – Wrexham’s ‘dubious honour’ in worst places to live listIf all the people who don’t like living here moved away, it would change to being one of the best places to live quite soon. Murder is not common place, knife crimes are not huge compared with other towns. Often the perpetrators of robberies are not of the area. We are within reach of some of the most stunning scenery in the world, the people on the whole are very kind.
It is imperative that Wrexham has one plan for the future that drives the economy, education, roads, peoples aspirations – as one. How has Wrexham performed in recent years, the Office of National Statistics data shows that we are going backwards, not forwards, we need to know if the current plan:
https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/council/documents/council_plan.htm
is performing or not. We need to improve the economy and education, at least, which is at the bedrock of changing negative perceptions.
I’ve read this through and I still can’t see a plan. I still see objectives and targets but I don’t see a plan.
I would be curious, for example, to see how the Council SPECIFICALLY intend (by plan) to reverse the trends in Secondary Education in Wrexham. Will the Council be brave enough to stand up to the Welsh Government on Secondary school structuring and mimic some successful English authorities? Will the authority issue a directive on Mixed ability policies within the 2 failing Superschools?
On the Markets, will the Council radically restructure the Management? Will the Council look at the Rental patterns to encourage sustainable business development within (say) the People’s Market?
A plan will have broad contours to operate within but the broad outline of where we want to get to is nothing like as important as the fine detail explaining exactly how we will get there.
In fairness, there is some detail on show and there is some flesh on the bone contained. I would, however, like to see far more as it actually is the bit that will breed confidence in the community
@zinger 3023 wrote:
People will not forgive the demolition of beautiful old buildings with history to be replaced by buildings of little character. The new builds should be sympathetic to the old. Eagles Meadow is so obviously separate to the old town centre that you choose to go to one or the other. The younger element is more likely to go there whereas with the bus station at the opposite side of town older people are not going to walk that far. Bad town planning. It was the same with the Peoples Market. Entry from the town centre was only an afterthought. Separate chunks instead of joined up thinking.
I would gladly forgive the demolition of most of Pen-y-Bryn/Bridge Street and at least half of Brook Street. “Beautiful” old buildings are fine, and I wholeheartedly agree with you that they should never be destroyed without good reason. However, there are a lot of streets in Wrexham with no “beautiful” buildings at all, just abandoned derelict heaps of rubble with boarded up windows, caved in roofs and rotting woodwork.
Where Eagles Meadow is built previously had a number of uses but immediately prior to Eagles Meadow it was another area that just appeared to be an abandoned concrete wasteland. Eagles Meadow was most definitely an improvement and, I think, represents good modern architecture … it beats all the corrugated iron, boxy units that get thrown up around the car parks of the out-of-town retail parks. I actually really like the Spanish Steps, the white bridge, the careful framing of St Giles Church between the buildings as you look down the walkway, and the “opened out” building that serves as a gateway onto the bridge in Yorke St.
In fact, the only thing that spoils the walk from town into Eagles Meadow is the views from the bridge of the appalling extension on the back of the Wynnstay Arms and the shocking state of disrepair of the backs of some of the shops on Yorke Street. Those “old buildings” are the eyesore that ruin the appearance rather than the pleasant surroundings of the new open public spaces of Eagles Meadow!
The front of Wynnstay Arms, The Royal Oak and (to some extent) The North & South Wales Bank Wetherspoons give some idea of how an old building can be well-maintained and contribute to the appearance of the street but, unfortunately, I think too many buildings in Wrexham are already past that and the best thing that could be done with them is to level them!
@Alunh 7785 wrote:
Fifthly, I do believe that if the Council attend to the dual issues of poor management and out of kilter rents, traders will return to the Market. One (and I stress one) of the reasons for the current lack of footflow is the lack of traders. This is now a chicken and egg scenario and there is a perfectly good case to be made that customers are not providing the footflow for the People’s Market because of the lack of traders. This reversing of the logic that is normally thrown out suggests that if more stalls re-emerge, footflow might revive.
Sixthly, it is clear that the TJHughes closure has played a detrimental role here and this might be reversed at any time in the future.
I would have to agree with this … the new free afternoon parking in the multi-storey means that is usually my parking-place of choice. As a result, I have to pass through (or very close by) the market to leave the building and I generally stop to have a quick look and see if there’s anything new or of interest … I wonder how many others do that. And I wonder how much longer they would stay and browse if there was more to look at.
I definitely think the closure of TJ Hughes had an effect, but I don’t think it’s an insurmountable problem, I think the main issue is just the lack of stalls. Like you said, if the stalls were there, the footflow would follow.
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