Council Leader Affirms ‘Strong Ambitions’ For Wrexham’s Future

The Leader of Wrexham Council has announced he ‘remains ambitious’ for the future of the county borough ‘in spite of a continued difficult economic climate’. 

Cllr Mark Pritchard, Leader of Wrexham Council has affirmed his ‘strong ambitions’ for Wrexham and that the authority aims to ensure they will ensure they ‘continue to improve wherever they can’.

Over the past few months the local authority has faced criticism with regards to the town centre, with many residents frequently calling for Wrexham Council, plus other elected representatives, to do more to help regenerate the town centre.

Such criticism has been posted online over the past two months, with a number of high profile stores, including BHS, Peacocks and Store Twenty One announcing that they would be closing. Locally independent businesses have also been lost, with two chip shops and cafes closing their doors for good over the past six weeks. Often when writing about such closures or relocations common themes and feedback gets mentioned – rents and rates.

Wrexham Council often gets blamed for high rents, while back in February after 200 comments were left by members of the public, Cllr Neil Rogers pointed out of 466 town centre ground floor units, Wrexham Council owned just six. Also referenced at the time was a draft ‘Town Centre Action Plan’ created six months ago by the Town Centre Forum, with the final plan not yet published.

In an unprompted statement issued by Wrexham Council, Cllr Pritchard said: “In spite of cuts, we are continuing to achieve outcomes for the public. While councils across Wales and the UK in general continue to find their budgets tightened, and Wrexham Council is no exception to that, we still have the expertise, capabilities and – in some cases – powers needed to lead on improvement.

“We know the economic and funding climate is not a positive one, but we remain ambitious.

“Population growth in Wrexham is increasing faster than in most areas of Wales. We’re already the largest town in Wales, and serve as an important, culturally rich gateway to Wales for those in the Midlands or North West of England.”

Earlier this month Cllr Pritchard hammered Welsh Government for giving the town just ‘crumbs’ when talking about possible infrastructure upgrades.

Cllr Pritchard referenced ‘two important projects’ currently underway in Wrexham – including HMP Berwyn which is set to open on the Industrial Estate early next year.

The second large and ‘important’ project taking place referenced is the Town Centre Masterplan, a strategic vision which outlines a framework for the town in the next ten years.

The Town Centre Masterplan was unveiled in October 2015 and focuses on plans to ‘promote the creation of a town centre destination, improved public space, a diversified mix of leisure, arts and culture supported by development of niche and specialist retailing’.

Cllr Pritchard continued onto say: “We’ve also seen a huge tourist spend in the county borough, reaching more than £100million last year. And the recorded number of businesses reached 9,775; an increase of 140 on last year.

“And we’re well in line to ensuring that all 11,300 council homes are up to the Wales Housing Quality Standard by 2020, with investment worth £228m.

“While this is all encouraging and worthy of commendation, our ambition is to ensure that we continue to improve wherever we can. We can take advantage of these trends and use them to increase jobs, economic opportunity, investment and civic pride.”

He added: “And I say all this not only as the Leader of the Council, but someone who was born and bred in Wrexham.

“I really am confident for Wrexham – we should be proud of the fact that we can stand as capital of North Wales and I know we can see our ambitions fulfilled.”