Happy New Year – 2014 Round Up!

2014 has come to an end, and while the barrage of New Year’s Resolutions start flowing and the remainder of the Christmas mince pies and chocolate are finished – we take a look back on 2014’s year’s news.

2014 was an eventful year for the town, with leisure centres closing and then reopening, anti-fracking camps being established; storms and snow, no 3G network (still on occasion!); Glyndwr having their UK Visa sponsorship rights suspended then having it reinstated, traffic chaos, hike in car parking charges and even a man getting trapped in a lift.

Rolling into 2015 there are the ever looming budget cuts, the future of local services are under still under threat and of course there is also a general election just months away (Not that we can tell by the increase in petitions, press releases and photo op’s in the area!)

There is the ongoing uncertainty surrounding whether the future of Wrexham lies merged with ‘that council up the road’ and if we will be re-branded as Wrexshire or Flintham.

Of course we couldn’t possibly list all the biggest and most popular stories, so rather than document the years events month by month, we settled for a combination of ‘big Wrexham’ stories. Underneath are a small handful of the most popular stories, the biggest stories and just a few of our own personal favourites thrown in for good measure.

Labour Councillors Walk Out

Back in September there was the somewhat surprise announcement that ten Labour councillors had decided to leave both the Labour Party and the Labour Group

The ten councillors put their decision to leave down to their position in the Labour Group becoming ‘untenable’; adding: “For many of us it is a very sad day. However, we cannot continue to be negatively influenced within the Labour Group on issues that affect the lives of the people of Wrexham.”

It was later announced that a new ‘Independent Party’ had been created, leading to one of our favourite headlines of the year – ‘Independents To Work With Independents While Remaining Independent‘.

Plas Madoc Reopens As Community Run ‘Splash Magic’ Centre

Over 12 months ago Wrexham Council announced that a consultation regarding the future of Plas Madoc Leisure Centre had been launched, with the centre mooted for closure as part of the Council’s ongoing budget and service cuts.

After many Council debates and meetings, the centre formally closed its doors back in April 2014.

However a team of volunteers were determined not to see the centre close and the Splash Magic Trust was formed. After months of fundraising, planning and more Council meetings – the team were given a 20 year lease to the centre and a £50,000 grant to help reopen the centre.

On December 6th 2014 the centre reopened as ‘Splash Magic’ and is encouraging people to get involved, this morning tweeting: “Happy New Year all! Start as u mean to go on .Get urself a Splash membership and get urself in trim.”

Euro Elections
As usual we did the only local indepth coverage of local elections, live blogging throughout the course of the day and sticking our necks out with a straw poll on the Euro Elections, which predicted a UKIP win…. which they did!

With just months until the General Elections, things in the world of politics are expected to heat up. Until then you can relive the election coverage live blog by clicking here….

The Wrexham Car Parking Debate Rages On…

One of our most talked about stories of the year was the controversial proposals to increase the parking charges at Eagles Meadow. The on-off price rises are locally rumoured to be due to a disagreement between Vinci and the landlords of Eagles Meadow, which could rumble on in to 2015.

2014 also saw an increase in parking charges in Council owned car parks in the town centre, with many taking to social media throughout the year to comment on the changes. Wrexham Council have trialled some parking fee changes in their own car parks this festive period, which seem to have been successful, so will 2015 see this continue?

‘Bomb Scare’ Closes Town Centre Shop

A training bomb was taken in to a shop on Lord Street, thankfully it was not a serious incident but is certainly chalked up as one of the odder stories of the year:

Snake Found In Erddig

Another ‘find’ in Wrexham was the sad story of a dead constrictor found in Erddig by a few people walking:

Aqueduct Close When Two Blokes Go For A Swim

Emergency services were called this year to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct after two men were seen swimming in the water. This is not recommended, and the pair were roundly criticised on our Facebook page!

Wrexham Prison Name

We created a joke story on April 1st regarding the name of the new prison coming to the Industrial Estate. Much like the ones before, this was taken quite seriously by some – despite the obvious clues in the story….

Wrexham Battered By UK Storm

Here at Wrexham.com we are known for our weather updates and pictures of fallen down bins, and 2014 saw one of the hottest summers in years and also the UK storms.

In February there were bins and fence panels falling down all over Wrexham when the town was battered by severe wind and rain, causing significant issues for everyone. You can see a selection here, from trees falling down to mystery lightening in the skies! Our most popular live weather update page was this one – here!

The 99p Shop Riots

This year saw Wrexham feature in news coverage world wide, when bargain hunters descended on a sale in the 99p Shop to grab a discounted, already discount bargain.

Back in January the store advertised a ’50p’ sale via a window poster, however had forgotten to state it was time limited causing word to spread around Wrexham with hundreds turning up at the shop

Eventually the chaos led to temporary closure of the shop, with police officers blocking the entrance and monitoring the queues. When the doors were eventually reopened, customers were greeted to a sea of empty shelves – with many seemingly taking advantage of the 50p toilet rolls that had been on offer.

The story quickly went viral and was featured in the likes of The Guardian, The Sun, The Mail, The Independent and The Metro.

Wrexham Success Stories

Despite many of the negative incidents and events that have taken place throughout the year, there has also been a significant number of positive stories that have seen the community join together and create brilliant results.

Often in Wrexham we can be our own worst critics, so while this isn’t exactly one story from the year – we thought it would be appropriate to take a look at just some of the positive stories and events to come out of Wrexham this year.

The ever popular Wales Comic Con has continued to go from strength to strength, attracting thousands of fans from across the world. What started as a small event held in the Glyndwr University Sports Hall has turned into a large scale event that spans across the entire university.

Due to the increasing popularity this year Comic Con hosted two sold out events, playing host to some of the biggest names in film, television and sci-fi. Just days ago the Wales Comic Con team announced that Early Bird tickets for their April 2015 show had been released and already a large percentage have been sold.

Back at the start of December a team of local businesses joined forces to host Small Business Saturday, an event that celebrated all that Wrexham has to offer.

Thousands descended on the town to take part in a cupcake and Christmas trail, see Father Christmas and see all the wonderful, local businesses Wrexham Town Centre.

2014 also saw a scaled back Christmas Light Switch on, with the ongoing budget cuts meaning a big event was this year out of the question. However last year’s event saw the light switch on have a more community run event, with local schools and local people playing host to a lantern parade through the town.

The event saw crowds parade through the town with Father Christmas and his reindeer, before gathering in Queens Square to sing carols by the tree.

Also in the news last year was the coming together of a local community to remove the ‘illiterate racism’ that had been spray painted in Wrexham. The graffiti ‘artists’ had been ridiculed for being illiterate, after misspelling the word ‘immigrant’. However a team of local volunteers joined forces to help tidy up the community and paint over the mindless vandalism.

Helicopters!

For those who follow our @wrexham twitter account directly or via the embed on here you will know we retweet and post a fair bit about choppers in the skies! One update was not police helicopter related… when the Sky News chopper was overhead – and we found out why…

Coca Cola Truck Comes To Town – No Traffic Chaos

One of the biggest attractions in Wrexham’s festive calender was the arrival of the Coca Cola Truck in Wrexham Town Centre.

The iconic Coca Cola truck brought thousands of visitors and shoppers into the town throughout the day, with crowds queuing up to have their photo taken. While the arrival of the truck was subject to much debate, the majority of Wrexhamites seemed to enjoy the day, with many later commenting on how much their children had enjoyed the day.

Unlike 2013 when the truck arrived in Broughton Retail Park, there were no traffic issues in the town centre for those who did pop buy and visit – with clear diversions and road blocks in place to help direct visitors to the truck.

Wrexham.com would like to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year. Thank you for the ongoing support and for making 2014 our biggest year to date. Hopefully 2015 is a great year for Wrexham and the people from Wrexham!