Council In Successful ‘Healthy High Streets’ Grant Bid

Wrexham Council has announced today it has successfully bid for a Business in the Community grant after being selected by the charity to be included in its Healthy High Streets campaign.

The Council say this means that the Town Centre Management Team will have access to a tailor-made package of business support and expertise to ‘help make our high streets healthier and more attractive’.

Boots UK, the Cooperative Group, Marks & Spencer and Santander are leading the Healthy High Streets campaign, which is supporting 100 high streets in the UK. They aim to increase footfall by 10% and reduce empty property units by 20%. Their ambition is to also create 3,000 jobs across the chosen towns over 3 years.

Leader of Wrexham Council, Cllr Mark Pritchard said: “This news comes at exciting times for the town centre on the back of our successful bid for £27million to regenerate and enhance town centre living through the Vibrant, Viable Places scheme.

“All those involved in promoting Wrexham town centre now want to step up a gear and take us to the next level. We should be proud and passionate about where we live and what we have right here on our doorstep.

“I’d appeal to Wrexham people to support the positive efforts of all our businesses and let’s starting shouting about what makes Wrexham so great.”

Town Centre Manager, Isobel Garner said: “This is excellent news as we try and engage more effectively with existing businesses whilst at the same time taking up other opportunities to attract new businesses into the town. Wrexham is a great place to work, shop and spend leisure time and we need to make sure that even more people know what’s on offer here”.

Wrexham Council have said overcoming the hurdles of communicating with town centre businesses and keep them up to date with information, events and activities formed the basis of the successful application to Business in the Community.

Mrs Garner said: “In this era of 24/7 communications, where a lot of information is shared via social media or email it can be frustrating for us to engage with retailers in dribs and drabs because messages often become diluted and as a result time and momentum is lost”.

Mrs Garner added that often big businesses undertake most of their communications via their headquarters and do not have external email contacts; at a more local level smaller, independent retailers cannot spare the time to attend Forums, formal meetings or don’t engage in or have access to electronic communication. She said this often led to information being cascaded slowly, too late or by physical visits which can often see the team walking directly into each store to convey the message.

The Town Centre Management team will meet with Business in the Community representatives in the next few weeks.