Nursery plans for former village police station set for go ahead

Plans to convert a former village police station into a children’s day nursery could finally be given the go ahead next week.

The interim chief planning officer at Wrexham Council has recommended an application for a change of use of the Gresford Police Station, on Chester Road, is approved.

It will be the second time proposals for the building will have been debated by committee members, after previous plans were rejected by both the local authority and planning inspectorate.

Earlier this year it was reported that a renewed application to convert the former police station – which was put on the market for almost £230,000 several years ago – had been put forward for consideration.

The fresh plans included a reduction in the number of children the nursery could accommodate in a bid to alleviate concerns about traffic and parking.

The applicants said that as a result of this change the 10 parking places at the front of the site will be “more than adequate to cater for the 24 proposed children and eight staff”.

Of these spaces eight will be made available to parents and two reserved for staff parking.

They proposed that a staff travel plan will be used to ensure that only two staff vehicles will ever be on site at any one time.

Despite the change in parking plans, the local community council has raised concerns that the “new proposals are unenforceable and the same traffic and highways problems remain.”

As a result the community council have objected to the application.

However there has been broad support for the change of use from the local residents, with 15 letters of support submitted in favour of the application.

These include praise for the use of a currently empty building, providing a nursery service for the local community and the site being on a public transport route.

The council’s highways department has also raised no objection the redevelopment of the property, subject to traffic and parking conditions being in place.

Wrexham Council’s interim planning officer said: “The proposal would bring back into use a prominent derelict building within a residential area.

“The use would provide an adequate level of parking to minimise disruption within the locality, and together with a car parking management plan and newly created access point will minimise issues of highway safety for both pedestrians and vehicles.”

The application will be considered by members of Wrexham Council’s planning committee at 4pm on Monday 3 October. The meeting will also be webcast on the Wrexham Council website.