Petition Launched To Fix Crispin Lane ‘Eyesore’

A petition has been launched with the aim of improving a ‘gateway’ to Wrexham, with a request that former football club owners & student accommodation developers be asked to remedy the situation.

The critical petition has been setup stating: “After property developers built student flats on land on Crispin Lane Wrexham they left the land next door in a dreadful state.

“The flats are next to the football/rugby stadium and University so the area is viewed by thousands of local residents and visitors to the area.

“What sort of an impression does it give them of the people and the area. This eyesore must be removed by the people that created it.”

Yesterday Wrexham.com took the above and following images of the site, which was freely open to access due to the lack of fencing. One wrecked portable building appeared to be unofficially in use, with various pieces of detritus nearby.

The current view along Crispin Lane has remained largely unchanged for the last few years since the development opened, and the planned second phases did not materialise.

From the site exterior on to Crispin Lane we would suggest not carrying children on shoulders to matches, nor jumping too high in celebration after a game:

The view as you approach one of the main entrances to the world’s oldest international football stadium is less than salubrious, with the image for visiting or prospective Glyndwr students perhaps not the best either:

For those wishing to sign, or view the comments added to the petition you can read it by clicking here.

Redux: Wrexham Village : Planning, Parking & Plants

As we were out and about taking pictures by the student flats we thought it was a good time to revisit something we wrote over 1,000 days ago, a piece on how the vision presented to Wrexham Council’s Planning Department did not quite match up with what has happened at the site and enquiring if Wrexham Council would act.

In 2012 we wrote about the planning document noting that it stated ‘within six months of the first use of the development, trees and shrubs shall be planted on the site in accordance with a scheme which has been submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority”. It went on to state that “any trees or shrubs removed, dying, being severely damaged or becoming seriously diseased within five years of planting shall be replaced by trees or shrubs of a similar size and species to those originally required to be planted”.

We have created the below tricky ‘spot the difference’ picture comparing the 2012 view to a view as of yesterday, although the dandelion does now give a spot of colour:

Needless to say the “tree avenue” with “featured tree rings” are also yet to appear.

The development itself took place on the former car park of Wrexham Football Club with the student flats being seen as controversial for many Wrexham FC fans, as all profits were due to go into the club, but they were then told the club will ‘not see a penny more’ as it had it all ‘upfront’.

This contrasted to information given, prior to planning approval, via a leaflet in 2009 that was handed out to fans stating “Wrexham FC have entered into a legal agreement with Wrexham Council which means that all profits from the development are safeguarded to go back into the club”.

At the time of the student flats opening a representative of Glyndŵr University said “We’re thrilled that the first phase has been completed – it looks fantastic” however there was no comment available yesterday to see if that view is maintained in light of the fresh criticism via the petition.