Posted: Sat 6th Jun 2020

Pandemic wont stop Football Museum or Gateway projects – First Minister says ‘good progress’ made in recent weeks

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jun 6th, 2020

The First Minister has indicated Wrexham is still set for a Football Museum and Gateway redevelopment, with an aim to ‘bring on’ other capital schemes in North Wales.

Key elements of the project desired includes the development of a large public transport interchange at Wrexham General Railway Station; the redevelopment of the Kop end of the Racecourse Stadium and the ‘wider development’ of the Racecourse; the creation of a major, a regionally important conference venue, and more.

No budget or price tag had been put on the plans, however in recent months budgets of key partners – Wrexham County Borough Council, the Welsh Government, Wrexham AFC and Wrexham Glyndŵr University – have been affected due to the pandemic.

At the start of the pandemic response from Welsh Government they ‘re-examined budgets and made tough decisions across every area to put in place a new £500 million economic resilience fund‘.

In a Zoom meeting yesterday we asked the First Minister Mark Drakeford what that meant for planned investments, and specifically in terms of planned local investments on the football museum, gateway projects – that includes the long running saga of the ‘Kop Land’ by Crispin Lane. We asked if such plans were scrapped, paused or if there was still money around for them.

The First Minister told us, “On the Wrexham Gateway Partnership despite the challenges of the pandemic there has been good progress over recent weeks on the plans to create that gateway to the town.

“The plans have developed rapidly even during the coronavirus period, with a lot of focus on land uses and ways of bringing land into better use to improve the interchange between the bus and railways station, developments of residential and hospitality, provision better linkage Wrexham Maelor hospital and public transport and some conferencing facilities that can be incorporated into the proposed redevelopment of a Kop stand at the Racecourse.

“That of course is part of the plan to bring international sporting events back to Wrexham. Wrexham has a very long tradition of that, and having the Football Museum in Wrexham is part of recognising Wrexham’s distinguished history in Welsh football.

“The exercise you refer to in the early days was collecting revenue money from around the government to spend on wages and business assistance. We are doing a parallel exercise on capital because it is inevitable not everything we thought we were going to be able to achieve this year will be possible when building sites have not been open and so on.

“It it will create opportunities as well, it’s not just about that can’t happen. We are looking very much for opportunities to bring on capital schemes, including some capital schemes in North Wales. And we’re going to need them because coronavirus is an economic crisis, we have to anticipate the fact that unemployment is going to rise quite rapidly as the furlough scheme comes to an end.”

“The best way to sustain the economy will be by infrastructure investment. So, what we’re doing at the moment is identifying those schemes that have been delayed, finding out how much capital we can collect back in and then pushing it back out again to other schemes that we’ve been able to bring on.”

The First Minister speaking yesterday afternoon via Zoom

With the comments on revenue spending and capital spending, we pointed the First Minster to comments by MS Rebecca Evans about desire for Welsh Government to be given flexibility from the UK Treasury over switching up capital and revenue to help the pandemic response. We asked the First Minster in very simple terms, why would that be a good thing?

The First Minister replied, “The thing we are shortest on is revenue money.”

“What businesses are saying to us is they need running costs money, money to stay alive. They need to pay the bills when they have no one coming through the door. They don’t need money to build buildings, they need money to pay bills, money to pay bills is revenue.

“In the crisis, we’ve had to spend an awful lot of revenue. All the extra people in the health service, for example, will have to be paid for quite rightly. The cost of paying staff in care homes has gone up hugely during the crisis, and that’s revenue.

“So one of the ways in which we think we can try to keep the Welsh Government budget afloat is to persuade the Treasury to allow us to transfer some money from our capital budget and use that as revenue in in this year.

“We have a target of around £200 million that we’d like to do that way. That will make a big difference to our ability to go out and support the businesses and public services in the second half of this financial year.”

A formal announcement on the gateway project is expected in the near future.



Spotted something? Got a story? Email [email protected]



Have a look at...

Turnover up 75% as Wrexham AFC say ‘losses shouldnt be repeated’ as payroll nears £7m

Off-road motorcyclists ‘using their bikes dangerously’ warned they ‘will be seized’

Saturday’s Wrexham Artisan Market to be ‘showcase’ of local and national products

MMA Event coming to north east Wales this weekend!

Rare newts thriving after north east Wales pond restoration

Plans for new studio flat above Wrexham fast food restaurant

Football Banning Order issued to Wrexham man for ‘pyro offences’

Ambulance Service ‘expecting the Bank Holiday period to be a busy one for us’

Reminder to check for Schools Essentials Grant before window closes at end of May

Wrexham AFC Women Awarded first UEFA License and FAW Tier 1 License renews for 2024/25 Season

“Disrespectful” easter egg hunt in cemetery cancelled after backlash

Free Easter Egg Hunt in Wrexham city centre tomorrow!