Council and University’s Partnership Project Wins National Award

A partnership project set up by Wrexham Council and Wrexham Glyndwr University has won a national award.

Wrexham Council’s Housing Service, tenants and a group of students from Wrexham Glyndwr University won the award for ‘Best Practice in Tenant Engagement’ at the Welsh Tenants Community Awards, held in Llandrindod Wells at the end of September.

The partnership was created to help engage council tenants with the extensive housing improvements project due to be carried out on the Plas Madoc estate.

Sponsorship for the partnership was provided by Novus Property Solutions and Top Notch Ltd, two contractors currently carrying out housing improvement work for Wrexham Council.

Around 400 of Plas Madoc’s non-traditional, steel framed, Cubbitt properties are due to receive External Wall Insulation in the near future. This will help improve the heat
efficiency of the homes and reduce fuel bills, as well as modernise their external appearance.

The work is part of Wrexham Council’s extensive improvements project to ensure that all its housing stock achieves the Welsh Housing Quality Standard by 2020.

Other potential improvements could include more off street parking space, improving the visibility for surrounding buildings and allow for new trees, plants and landscape redesign. There will also be an opportunity for new properties to be built.

Architectural Design Technology Graduates, Thom Gordon, Darren Pleavin and Ben Turner, created a table top sized model of the estate, complete with buildings and landmarks, which was used at a tenants open day event.

The students are also now in the process of creating a 3D computer generated walkthrough video which will show how the estate could potentially look after improvements have been carried out.

Glyndwr Student, Thom Gordon said, “We’re all really delighted that our partnership with the council has been recognized with this national award. We were originally approached by Wrexham Council earlier this year to help put together the open day event for Plas Madoc.

“They wanted something to help the local tenants visualise some of the changes which are planned for the estate. Plas Madoc is a very important local community and it seemed like such an ambitious and positive project.

“It’s been a fascinating journey and I think we’ve all had a great learning experience working on a real life project of this scale.”

Gary Robinson, Director at Top Notch Ltd, said: “This has been a great project to be involved with. We want to ensure that our work with Wrexham Council leaves a social and economic legacy and that the local community will be able to benefit from the huge investment being made in housing improvement work.

“The partnership that’s been created with Glyndwr University has ticked all those boxes and it has also opened the doors for further opportunities in the future, now that we know what is possible if we work together.”

Wrexham Council are investing over £90m in housing improvement work between 2015-2017. This includes a £7.5m Major Repairs Allowance grant which the Welsh Government awards to local authorities to support them achieving the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

The work will include installing External Wall Insulation on all non-traditional properties in the County Borough and offering new kitchens and bathrooms to every property where they are required to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

Other internal and external improvements such as electrical rewiring and new central heating systems are also being carried out where required.

Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Ian Roberts, added: “The work the students have done for us has been invaluable so it’s fantastic news that the partnership has received national recognition at the Welsh Tenants Award.

“We were able to use the model they created at the open day event to show where potential changes could take place and it was so useful for tenants to be able to see the whole estate in front of them.

“The 3D walkthrough video the students are working on will also be a very useful tool which will help us see what a modernized Plas Madoc estate could look like.

“It’s taking us one step closer to making this ambitious project a reality for these tenants and it shows that there’s bright future in store for the tenants of this estate.”

More information on the work being carried out to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard can be found on Wrexham Council’s website.