Splash Magic Leisure Centre Receives £5k Donation

A Wrexham leisure centre run by volunteers has received a £5,000 donation from a local Community Council.

Staff at Splash Magic Leisure Centre have thanked Cefn Community Council after members agreed to donate another £5,000 towards the running of the facility.

Councillors voted to give the Splash Community Trust, which took the centre over from Wrexham Council and rebranded it Splash Magic, £1,000 in each of the next five months – in addition to £5,000 already donated since late autumn.

Trust secretary Stella Matthews said: “We are extremely grateful to Cefn Community Council chairman Ken Bathers and the rest of the members for voting to give another £5,000 to Splash Magic – this is vital funding which we can use to apply for grants through match-funding initiatives.

“We have had several donations from community councils. We appreciate every single one and would like to thank them all for their continued support.”

The facility in Acrefair was closed by Wrexham Council little over a year ago and was reportedly running at a £400,000-a-year loss under local authority ownership.

After several months of fundraising and the establishment of the Splash Magic Community Trust, the leisure centre was reopened by on Saturday December 6th 2014 under the new name Splash Magic – and appears to be going from strength to strength.

The centre recently passed 600 members, its initial target figure for memberships within three months of being reopened by volunteers.

Clwyd South AM Ken Skates, another founder member of the trust, said: “This money could open lots of doors for Splash and will hopefully trigger further crucial investment now that the team has more than shown it’s worth backing.”

Mr Skates added: “Public support will need to continue for Splash to be viable in the long-term, but things are certainly much rosier under the new regime.”

Splash Magic recently took on three local youngsters through the Welsh Labour Government’s Jobs Growth Wales (JGW) scheme and will soon appoint another two.

Cllr Bathers added: “Cefn Community Council fully supports the Splash Trust in their hard work in reopening the leisure centre and I salute their achievements in what has been a very difficult period.

“The council has donated £10.000 to assist the trust in getting things off the ground, and on behalf of the council I wish them great success in the coming years.”
Applications for the roles of gym assistant and pool assistant, funded through the JGW programme, close on March 19 and the trust is hoping to have the new employees in place by the end of the month.