Posted: Thu 24th Mar 2016

Additional £500,000 ‘Funding Boost’ For Arts Hub / Market Development

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Thursday, Mar 24th, 2016

An additional £500,000 is to be invested into Wrexham’s new Arts and Cultural Hub / People’s Market – with adjoining retail spaces on Chester Street also set to benefit from the money.

The additional ‘funding boost’ was announced today as part of the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places programme.

The 500,000 will be invested into additional works to the Arts and Cultural Hub on Chester Street, with the funding expected to ‘enhance visitor facilities, revitalise the immediate area and improve adjoining retail premises’. Although details of exactly how the adjoining shops will be revitalised has not been confirmed.

In February it was confirmed that Arts Council Wales had approved funding of £2.3 million towards the development, with Wrexham Council contributing £1.5million. A further £700,000 has been put towards the scheme from Wrexham Council’s previous bid for the VVP fund.

The additional £500,000 brings the total spend on the Arts Hub / People’s Market to around £5million.

Speaking about the funding boost, Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities and Partnerships, said: “I am very pleased with the additional funding for the Arts project in the People’s Market. The monies will be used to enhance visitor facilities, revitalise the area and improve retail premises.”

Cllr Neil Rogers, Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, added: “This is very good news. It will increase the spend within the markets area in total of around £5 million and will further enhance the proposed project.”

Wrexham’s funding is part of twelve regeneration projects in Wales receiving a £12.8m boost. The additional funding brings the total investment in the Welsh Government’s flagship regeneration scheme to £118 million.

A recent report found, between 2014 – 17, the programme will create more than 2,000 jobs, support 3,000 people into work and bring a further £300 million into Wales. It is also expected to provide 1,000 affordable homes and more than 2,300 homes in the private sector

Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister Lesley Griffiths said: “This additional funding is a huge boost to key regeneration projects in Wrexham and Flintshire which will make a very real difference to their local communities.

“As well as improving important local services, the funding will create jobs and traineeships and boost Wales’ housing supply. The Welsh Government is committed to creating jobs, supporting the economy and increasing housing supply and our flagship VVP programme is at the very heart of our efforts.”

Work on converting the People’s Market into an Arts and Cultural Hub / market space is set to begin in January 2017, with the development set to be complete by 2018.



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