Optimism over funding for Civic Leader’s project to get redundant town centre buildings purchased and put back to use

A project that could see unused buildings in Wrexham town centre purchased and repurposed is making progress, amid hopes of a sizeable funding announcement from Welsh Government.

Last year an eight point plan from the town’s “Civic Leaders Group” was signed off by the Executive Board of Wrexham Council. The Civic Leadership Report 2019 on Wrexham (PDF here) gave a ‘vision’ of the town centre’s strengths and also its weaknesses and puts forward eight ideas to build on those strengths and address the weaknesses.

Last month we reported on the progress of one project that will see development of “a strong brand and embarking on marketing and engagement” for the town, and yesterday we enquired about progress of a project outcome around ‘finding financial solution to knock down and invest in town centre buildings”

That project has previously been discussed around the purchase of ‘derelict properties’ and their reuse.

Yesterday Wrexham Council Chief Executive Ian Bancroft told us, “There are big schemes that have got initial funding that the Leader of the Council has been very supportive of, and the Council have, which have come forward from the Civic Leadership group, one is a market appraisal of redundant buildings and spaces.

“That is really important, because there’s some quite big funding that’s available from Welsh Government to look at purchasing some of those properties, once we’ve completed the market appraisal.”

We asked about the timescales involved between the appraisals, and actual purchases of buildings.

Mr Bancroft explained, “The behind the scenes work is about having a very clear vision for what we think around the town centre. That was the advantage of having a clear brochure that we had a year ago, to be able to talk to funding partners about. The second bit is then getting initial funding allocated, to be able to do the initial investigatory work or appraisal work, which is obviously what’s been agreed now between Welsh Government, and between the council and and the civic leaders.”

“The third phase is once that appraisal is completed, if there’s a clear end use for those redundant buildings, it should be feasible to move relatively quickly in terms of progressing that. So we’ll see where the market appraisal gets us to in terms of springtime, and then we’ll be looking at making decisions around individual buildings and properties.”

“I think that’s really, really key. It’s the same process we followed in relation to the Wrexham Gateway, where we’ve undertaken master planning, and we’re getting near to the end of feasibility work.”

“So, a lot of these projects we’ve now got in place ready to receive substantial and major funding. I know it’s really hard for people who aren’t involved to understand that it’s like an iceberg, that is 90% of the work. Once we’re at a stage where we get into feasibility and funding, things do progress really quickly. So I’m optimistic on both those fronts.”

Council Leader Mark Pritchard thanked council officers and the Civic Leaders group ‘for the time and effort’ put into the project work, adding thanks to the Welsh Government, “I’m sure there’ll be an announcement sometime in the future with regards to the funding, but that’s a decision that they will have to make and that will be their announcement.”

“With regards to the feasibility study and all the work which has been going on in the background. We have been working tirelessly, as have the officers in the assets team to identify the buildings and the properties which will come into the discussion. It does depend on funding, it depends on how much the Welsh Government announce that they’re going to give us. So it is very interesting times ahead.

“I hope there’s an announcement sometime soon, on all the projects, and we can roll our sleeves up and get on improving the town centre and beyond.

“There is a lot of work being done, and I’d like to thank everybody who’s been involved up to today.”

The Civic Leadership Group for Wrexham was established in 2018 in partnership with Wrexham County Borough Council and is made up of “Civic Leaders” from a range of public and voluntary organisations and businesses in Wrexham who are ‘united around an ambition to support Wrexham achieve its full potential, in particular through a focus on and investment in the town centre’.