Posted: Mon 2nd Sep 2019

370+ responses to call to help shape future of town’s markets

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Monday, Sep 2nd, 2019

The findings of a public consultation and a review into the “future development and management” of three town markets will be announced early next year.

A total of 373* people took part in a recent consultation, which asked members of the public if the Butchers, General and Monday Markets were “currently meeting the needs of visitors”.

It also aimed to get feedback from shoppers on whether the three markets are “currently meeting the needs of visitors” and if any changes are “required to ensure the markets are fit for purpose in an ever changing town centre environment”.

Responses to the consultation will help direct the ‘task and finish group when considering the development opportunities and management of the three markets.’

There have beens several reviews and plenty of meetings regarding the two remaining indoor and Monday markets in recent years – with seemingly very little new being discussed or debated.

Back in 2016 a “Strategic Asset Management Plan 2016-21 (SAMP)” was published by Wrexham Council – which offered a ‘critical appraisal’ of what was then the three town centre indoor markets, 24 retail shops and the outdoor Monday market.

The document outlined a five year strategy to “improve the aesthetic and offering of Wrexham’s indoor markets”, something which was estimated to cost £400k between the indoor markets.

This broke down to being something in the region of £128,000 for the General Market and £290,000 to comprehensively refurbish the property to an overall standard that would be considered ‘excellent’.

Speaking at the time Regeneration Manager at Wrexham Council, Rebeccah Lowry explained that the action plan put together last year wasn’t necessarily guaranteed, but was a wish list of things to work with traders if funding allowed.

During an annual meeting on the markets last summer, it was emphasised by councillors and officers that the markets “remain a priority”, with plans to ensure they have a future and are fit for a modern retail environment.

Last week we asked Wrexham Council for information on the number of people who took part in the recent consultation, we also questioned why so many of the employment, business and investment scrutiny committees have been cancelled this year.

Since January just four meetings have been held, the most recent being the June when councillors discussed the first year performance of Ty Pawb.

This month’s meeting, which was due to take place on Wednesday, has also been cancelled.

A spokesperson for Wrexham Council, said: “There has been a full review of the work programmes of the Scrutiny Committees this year to align them with the new Council’s in year priorities and underpinning activities.

“This has resulted in some new topics being added to the work programme and some topics being removed.

A number of meetings of the full EBI Committee have been cancelled this year and meetings of the Scrutiny Town Centre Markets Task & Finish Group have been held in their place.

“Task & Finish Group meetings are not open to members of the press and public, but Markets representatives have been involved in the work of this Group.

“It is intended that the Task & Finish Group will report its findings and recommendations to the full EBI Scrutiny Committee in January 2020.”

Previously Wrexham Council Leader Mark Pritchard has said there was ‘no reason’ why Task and Finish meetings could not be open to public viewing in person let alone webcasting, noting any private business could be taken into the usual ‘Part 2’ style secret sections of meetings.

After those comments we asked Wrexham Council for a copy of the dates and times of such meetings, and enquired if we turned up would we be able to view them taking place.

We had no response.

(* around 42% of that figure clicked through on links to take part in the consultation via Wrexham.com articles)



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