Heads of Terms to be signed as council move to ‘complete disposal’ of Groves site to unnamed company & football club

The future of the Groves site could be firmed up soon with the site split in two and buildings brought back into use.

We have previously reported that the fields on the site are likely to be handed to Wrexham Football Club on a 150 year lease, and today it can be revealed the old school building side of the site could end up with a yet unnamed company.

A Part 2 secret report will be presented to councillors next week where the Heads of Terms for the future use of both the Groves school and playing fields will be agreed, along with further agreement ‘to approve the actions required to complete the disposals’.

Wrexham Council have told Wrexham.com that due to the commercial nature of the report it is not possible to disclose the contents, however they made a point of ‘reassuring everyone’ that the report will contain no proposals that involve demolishing the Grade II listed building.

The football club have recently said they have negotiated and signed a two year lease on the nearby 9 Acre playing field for the ‘interim’ period before a move to the Groves. Preplanning meetings have been held, and legal and planning work has been taking place ahead of that move. The new training ground will consist of a  purpose-built training venue with two brand new pitches along with a parking area.

The site has been subject to ‘expressions of interest’ after an exercise last year, where third parties were asked to come forward with proposals over future use of the site. Although invited to be told of the progress the Daily Post as usual did not attend the briefing this week, however did get paid to run an advert to drum up interest in the site, where it was noted the freehold was open for purchase as well as a lease.

The deadline was the end of May last year, with negotiations taking place since then. It is unknown if the school building section of the site will be via a lease from the council, or a freehold sale however is being treated separately from the playing fields that have effectively been allocated to the football club.

Due to the confidential nature of the report Cllr Pritchard was ‘careful’ in what he said and did not name the company interested, “We are progressing with the company who showed expressions of interest to take over the building, and we’re still working with them. That will evolve as time goes on.

“They have aspirations to bring it back into use. We are still in the place that we’re more than happy to work with them and for that building to be brought back into use, subject to a full business case and sustainability.”

Council Chief Executive Ian Bancroft said, “Clearly what is at the centre of our minds is about making sure that this site is used in a way that’s appropriate. So the use in terms of playing fields, in terms of training, education, in terms of the building is really, really important. I think we’ve been very mindful of that in looking at the users for both areas of the side, that they reflect the nature of the site in terms of what’s important for it.

Years ago Coleg Cambria was interested in the site before shifting plans to their huge redevelopments of other sites, and with various rumours over to the circumstances we delved into a dossier of communications to discover what went on – story here. We understand they are not the interested party in the new expression of interest that is being taken forward.

The move of the football club is of interest to Wrexham Council, as Cllr Phil Wynn, lead member for education, said previously: “Wrexham Council is delighted to be working with Wrexham AFC to provide them with a new training site near the former Groves and freeing up Nine Acre with a view to putting a 21st century school on that site instead.”