Have your say on Wrexham Council’s strategy on open spaces

Members of the public are being urged to have their say on open spaces across Wrexham and how they are managed.

The local authority is currently running a consultation on its ‘Open Spaces Strategy’, which outlines how biodiversity can be boosted, creating a “sustainable range” of open spaces and improving access for people.

An open space is defined as any outdoor space that is considered to have public value.

These spaces can provide health, wellbeing and recreational opportunities to the people living nearby, in additional to providing an ecological value to a variety of species.

Open spaces is a term that can cover something as small as a grass verge, to an area as big as a country park. However this does not include indoor sports provision or facilities.

The open spaces throughout Wrexham County Borough are governed by several pieces of legislation, and one of the most important areas of this legislation is Wrexham County Borough Council’s (WCBC’s) obligation to improve the natural environment.

This comes under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the Environment (Wales) Act 2016.

The former of these Acts is focused on improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales and the latter is focused on securing healthy, resilient and productive ecosystems.

Wrexham Council’s vision for open spaces is described as being: “Wrexham County Borough is a place with a diverse range of open spaces which are accessible and managed appropriately (according to their intended use) to ensure that they are clean, safe, fit-for-purpose and providing maximum opportunities for positive environmental impacts. We have several objectives that when reached, will have environmental, social and economic benefits.”

The strategy also outlines several objectives, including

•  To encourage a diverse range of sustainable open spaces of high quality which help fulfil the health and wellbeing needs of those living and working within Wrexham.
• To ensure that people, and communities have access to multiple areas of open space in a range of diverse locations, and for a variety of uses across the County Borough.
• To protect, manage and enhance our open spaces for the benefit of biodiversity and to address the climate and biodiversity crisis; as well as to enhance social and economic benefits.
• To ensure that our open spaces and any associated infrastructure is safe, appropriately managed and is suitable for all intended users.
•  To work with local people, communities and partners to identify opportunities to improve our open spaces, and to improve access and connectivity of open spaces.
• Sustainably manage, protect and enhance the County Borough’s open spaces to maximise ecological, social and economic benefits.

As part of the public consultation members of the public can have their say on the council’s objectives and what else they feel should be included.

Lead member for the environment Cllr Hugh Jones said: “Our open spaces and how we use them are an important part of our communities, in recent years our views on how they should look and be used have changed and it is important that we get an up to date understanding of what you consider is important and how you would like them to be used.

“Please make your views known by responding to our survey running to September 1.”

You can take part in the consultation on the YourVoiceWrexham website here.