Council look to replace problematic legacy Peoples Market lifts in Tŷ Pawb

Wrexham Council are looking for contractors to replace the lifts in Tŷ Pawb.

One lift has been out of action for a while, and last week saw the second lift out of operation for around three days.

We were told it has been broken since Tuesday – there are two but one has been out of use for longer. "No signs on the way in so you only find out your are stuck after parking up." https://t.co/XzjiRgL54E

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) October 24, 2019

The council are now tendering for the replacement of one passenger lift and one Fire Fighting lift. The existing lifts are to be replaced in their entirety with a completely new traction installation, including associated building & electrical works.

The new lift is expected to be installed in the new year, and last around twenty years.

The lifts were not replaced during the multi million pound redevelopment likely as the initial grand plans that would have seen use of the tower as a viewing platform, and more use of the roof area with a small cafe bar, landscape, artist space and an open air cinema scrapped.

Back in 2017 when Ty Pawb was still the Peoples Market and the decision to transform it was still underway we received a few hundred pages of emails as part of a FOI response. As part of the lengthy write up on the focus of the article, we noted other elements that surfaced with regards to the lift.

In the email we referred to the top line item referred to the lifts as being the ‘main concern’ as serious health and safety issues were flagged up internally in Wrexham Council.

A member of Council staff states numerous issues, concluding “I am very concerned over these issues, because if a real emergency happens the markets team are not in the position to respond effectively” and requests an ‘urgent meeting’. The email sent in October outlines seven ‘real concerns’, prompted by a fire alarm activation where there was only one staff member on site but in a different market and thus did not hear it. An enforcement officer was nearby and contacted a member of staff who was in a meeting at Eagles Meadow who then immediately returned to the People’s Market and then procedures were followed. Samples of the seven issues include, ‘no member of the office staff has actually received any formal training on evacuation procedures’, lift release training was cancelled half way through as the trainer ‘felt it was unsafe to continue due to a number of issues’, plus questions raised if markets office staff were not on site and security staff were attending an emergency instead if they were properly trained. It is also stated that some members of the markets team were not confident even if trained on responding to an emergency, and that they had stated they did not want to be put in such a position.”

With the lifts in use regularly by the public since the above, we assume the health and safety issues were taken seriously and subsequently resolved.