Further talks to be held with Air Products site owners over money for schools after councillors accuse them of ‘greed’

Further talks are set to be held with the owners of a former manufacturing site over providing funding for schools after councillors accused them of greed.

Permission was granted for 232 houses to be built at the Air Products site in Acrefair in 2018. It followed the closure of the plant around a decade ago, which resulted in approximately 200 staff losing their jobs.

Wrexham Council gave the go ahead subject to Prospect Estates Limited entering into a Section 106 legal agreement to pay between £1,960 and £2,352 per house towards boosting the capacity of local primary schools.

However, the company has recently sought to remove the obligation, along with another to make a quarter of the properties affordable, claiming it would render the scheme unviable.

The local authority’s planning committee met to discuss the request at a virtual meeting held yesterday, with many community leaders voicing objections to the potential loss of money.

Speaking during the debate, Cefn councillor Derek Wright said: “Our community has four primary schools, which is as many, if not more than any other area in the county borough.

“Other than the Welsh medium school Ysgol Min y Ddol, there is very little room in any of our schools.

“The age of our schools should be taken into consideration as well as Acrefair School is over 100-years-old, Min y Ddol is over 65-years-old, Cefn CP is around 50-years-old and Rhosymedre is around 10-years-old.

“If we don’t get the 106 money for this then we will never get the money for the schools that we desperately need in this area.”

Among the bodies who asked for the school contributions to remain in place before the meeting was the council’s own education team.

In an e-mail to the planning department, school places manager Paula Parry said there was already “pressure and oversubscription” in the area
.
But chief planning officer Lawrence Isted recommended that councillors should agree to remove the requirements.

Cllr Wright was joined in expressing concerns over the suggestion by a number of committee members.

Among them was Gwersyllt west councillor Gwenfair Jones, who said: “I agree with Derek here. I think that the developers are being greedy and trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

“Going down that route, if we let one lot of developers get away with it, others will try and do the same so I will definitely oppose this.”

While some members appeared to be veering towards rejecting the application outright, a warning was sounded that the site had stood empty for around ten years.

Planning officer David Williams said it might never be developed if they refused permission, adding that commercial viability was a factor that needed to be considered.

Cllr Paul Pemberton suggested the decision should be put on hold in order to encourage the land owners to reach a compromise over the payments.

He said: “One thing that worries me over this is the comment that David made that unless this is sorted out, there’s nothing going to happen on that site.

“Now that site has been empty since 2009, so it’s been ten or eleven years.

“It looks a mess and I think if it was regenerated then it would benefit the whole area – not only the Cefn and Acrefair area, but Wrexham as a whole.”

He later put forward a recommendation to defer the application to see if the company would be willing to pay a lesser amount towards education.

It was supported by ten votes to eight with one abstention.

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme)