‘Informal Consultation’ Over De-Pedestrianisation Of Parts Of Wrexham Town Centre

Proposals for a possible partial de-pedestrianisation of Wrexham’s town centre are still being explored .

In June Wrexham.com reported that the idea of reducing the levels of pedestrianisation in the town centre had been mooted as a way of encouraging more visitors to the town centre.

Currently much of the main town centre, such as Henblas Street, Hope Street, Regent Street and sections of Chester Street are currently pedestrianised aside from loading vehicles.

The idea to reduce pedestrianisation was put forward by Rob Clarke from Mad 4 Movies in the Butcher’s Market, who put the idea forward as a way to increase footfall and shoppers.

Such changes could see parking bays where people could park or be dropped off for a short period of time.

Speaking at the time Mr Clarke said: “Basically being in the Butcher’s Market for a long time you get speaking to traders and customers. It seems to be one of the biggest problems we have is that people aren’t coming into town as much.

“It might be a radical solution, but how about getting rid of pedestrianisation in town? I can see why it was needed in the 90s and early 00s, but it’s outdated.

Pedestrianisation in Wrexham was also put forward in the Town Centre Masterplan – an extensive document which outlines what Wrexham could look like in the next few years.

An update on the potential of pedestrianisation was provided at yesterday’s Town Centre Forum, with Chairman Nigel Lewis noted that the idea was put forward due to the change of town centre’s in the past few years.

He said: “People can pop to the door of supermarkets and can be in and out in 15 minutes as that is how people want to shop. Bridgend are also reconsidering their pedestrianisation.

“We did not advocate ripping up the cobbles. An Officer from Highways asked we look at possible areas where 30 minute parking could be extended.”

It was also noted there were plans for an ‘informal consultation’ which would be brought back to the Town Centre Forum Steering Group, and then escalated to Wrexham Council if appropriate.

Cllr Phil Wynn questioned how such a consultation would work and how the public could feed into the process.

Mr Lewis referenced readers responses to Wrexham.com’s earlier article, stating: “There is mixed views. The first instance is to have informal discussions. It may disappear at that stage, but if it was to be pursued it would have to go through the proper channels.”

For those interested there is details of the formal consultation by Bridgend Council here, with their proposed scheme costing £500,000 to create two crossings several parking bays and associated changes , it also references ‘pedestrian only’ times used in Neath, Caldicot and Tenby. There is also an excellent write up and analysis of the Bridgend ideas here on OggyBloggyOgwr.com.

UPDATE: Since publication there has been lots of comments on our Facebook page thread on this article, including one from the Chair of the Town Centre Forum referring to the headline as ‘misleading’.

Nigel Lewis said: “The discussion at the forum was clear in that we where not looking at ripping up cobbles in pedestrianised area. Rather the project would look streets where 30 minute parking could be introduced or extended such as high street. As Chair of Wrexham Town Centre Forum I make is absolutely clear at this time there is absolutely no plan to even consider having cars on the cobbled pedestrianised streets of Wrexham. A more appropriate head would having been – WCBC to consider proposals to extend 30 minutes free parking in the town centre.”

We pointed out that there had been no mention that cars in current banned areas was been ruled out totally, and that comments on physical changes such as ripping out of cobbles was quoted.

We have enquired to the relevance of Bridgend and their reconsideration of pedestrianisation, likewise comments elsewhere on Mold’s ‘success’ and noted as ‘with little pedestrianisation’. We are told more information will be provided in the morning.

After the above comments the Chair of the Steering Group, Andrew Atkinson, got in touch about the proposed changes to the Forum citing this issue as an example of the good practice and process in place. The comments indicate the process involving the idea of Mr Clarke appears to be ongoing, with a future meeting with a Councillor being offered to further investigate the idea.

We asked for further clarity and it was confirmed that there are plans to ask various local stakeholders, for example disability groups, what they would think to changes on parking times and bays on some roads in town, and that the discussion could also cover de-pedestrianisation if Mr Clarke wanted. The key elements confirmed as being any consultations were informal and that nothing had been ruled out.