Rhosddu site could see 100% council owned £9m social housing redevelopment in coming years

Wrexham Council’s leadership have said they are ‘absolutely’ committed to putting ‘as many social housing’ units on a redevelopment site in Rhosddu in the coming few years.

A report before the Executive Board has lightly detailed the next steps for a possible redevelopment of a key site in Rhosddu. The meeting will see a likely green light to a feasibility study to “explore and make recommendations on the future use of the Rhosddu Road site with a consideration for social housing” as well as giving councillors a ‘clear and transparent review of the potential future uses of the whole of the site’ again including social housing.

“Centre 67” was knocked down as we have long detailed, with other users of the site referred to in the report, “The Social Care staff based at Greenacres have now relocated to a permanent office base at Crown Buildings. The small Emergency Duty Team who remain based at Greenacres, are currently working with the Assets Team to identify an alternative, permanent 24 hour accessible office base.

“The Cunliffe Centre requires modernisation. The Senior Management responsible for the service are currently working with the Assets Team to consider options for the development of a purpose built facility, which will provide the modern, specialist accommodation to meet the needs of service users both now and in the future.”

“Springfield Sheltered Housing Scheme currently occupies part of the land incorporated for consideration. It is made up of 41 properties (19 bedsits, 19 one bedroom flats and 4 two bedroom flats), in a three storey building that was constructed in 1970.”

Cllr David A Bithell explained as soon as the feasibility study is undertaken, “…the matter will come back to the Executive Board to determine what we do with the whole of the site, and then take it forward.”

Funding appears allocated for future redevelopments, with the report noting £9 million over the next 3 years “…to support the development of new social housing” with a split of £1 million in 2023/24, £4 million in 2024/25 and £4 million in 2025/26 from the Housing Revenue Account budget. The funding also indicates a possible timeframe for development, as after we pointed out the Cllr Bithell the report explains it has taken a decade to knock down Centre 67, and asked if a similar timeframe would be needed to build on the site, he pointed to the finances in the report.

The report notes a ‘a risk that the site may not be suitable for future development’, so we queried if Wrexham Council knocks things down and then discovers if there is a risk afterwards, and asked if this piece of work should have taken place beforehand.

Cllr Bithell said that was the reason behind the feasibility study.

We reasked, noting that the council had knocked down a building and are now presenting a report that states there is a risk that the site may not be suitable for future development, pointing out if it is not suitable, the council have knocked down a building for no reason.

Cllr Bithell played down the element of risk, “The reality is if it comes back and said it’s not suitable for development, which is highly unlikely, but if it did, then the the asset of the site belongs to the council. The ultimate decision then of the council would be to decide, if it’s not suitable for housing, then ultimately, we could go back out to market, we could either sell the site or redevelop it and put a new Cunliffe Centre on that or whatever we want to do with it. There’s always a risk to anything.”

The report also notes ‘consultation with the Local Member has taken place’ – Cllr Marc Jones – who has been very vocal over the site, and as we have long documented, there have been several disagreements between the Council political leadership and Cllr Jones on the issue. We asked Cllr Bithell about that consultation, and he said, “The Chief Officer has consulted with Marc Jones, my understanding is and I don’t know what was said, but all I can say is the member is generally supportive of building social housing on the site.”

As the report states the ‘options’ on the table are as follows, we asked if the desire was still 100% council owned social housing and if there was any desire to split or sell off part of the site.

7. EVALUATION OF OPTIONS
7.1 Option 1 – To commission a masterplan for the delivery of Council owned
social housing on the Rhosddu Road site
7.2 Option 2 – To commission a fuller options appraisal for the land to assess
the feasibility of its potential in its entirety

Cllr Bithell said, “We don’t want to preempt what the study is going to come back and say. The study could come back and say, it would be good to build on the whole of the site, it might say, well, you can do a mix on the sites, or you can do a mix and match, you can do a little bit of both.

“It will be clearly to put as many social housing as we can, because we’ve got a waiting list for for council houses. So the more we get on there, the better.”

We asked if the intention was still 100% council owned social housing, and was told “absolutely”.