Security For Town Eyesore Costs Over £20k

A Freedom of Information request (FOI) to Wrexham Council has revealed over £20,000 has been spent on security for the former Groves school in the last 12 months.

In a FOI request submitted by Richard Evans of Wingetts on Whatdotheyknow.com, the cost of security and empty rate fees on vacant properties reveals that hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on properties in Wrexham.

Mr Evans asks: “I should be grateful if you could confirm the amount of empty rates the Wrexham County Borough Council have paid out over the last three years for the following properties:

3 Grosvenor Road Wrexham
5 Grosvenor Road Wrexham
7 Grosvenor Road Wrexham
9 Grosvenor Road Wrexham

Together with empty rates on The Groves School Powell Road Wrexham.”

The periods for each property are broken down into 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, however the overall

3-5 Grosvenor Road are based on an assessment with a rateable value of £69500. A breakdown of the costs spent from 2010 – 2013 are listed below:

2010 / 2011 – £28425.50

2011 / 2012 – £29746.00

2012 / 2013 – £31414.00

Total: £89585.50

7-9 Grosvenor Road is also based on a combined assessment, which have a rateable value of £41,000. A breakdown of the amount spent over the past three years is listed below:

2010 / 2011 – £16779.00

2011 / 2012 – £17548.00

2012 / 2013 – £18532.00

Total: £52859

With regards to the vacant Groves school there are two rating assessments. The first has a rateable value of £1, which means it is exempt from charge. However assessment Two is a rateable value of £19,250 but Wrexham County Borough Council were not the libel party for rating purposes for the period in question.

The cost of security on the above properties was also revealed via a separate part of the request from Mr Evans, who asked: “Also can you confirm the cost of security for the five premises.”

From 2010 to the start of 2012 nothing was spent on security for 3-5 Grosvenor Road.

However from 2012 / 2013, £12,539 was spent on security for the properties. The breaks down to £2,038 on security patrols, £1,500 securing roof, £1,120 on intruder alarm maintenance and finally £7,881 on permascreens fitted to all window and door openings.

For 7-9 Grosvenor Road, nothing was spent on security from the period 2010-2013.

In 2012 / 2013 nearly £18,500 was spent on fitting permascreens to the windows and doors on the former Groves School. Alongside this £1,658 was spent on security patrols.

This is in comparison to 2011 / 2012 where no money was spent on security for the school. However in 2010 / 2011, £1,131 was spent on security patrols for the property.

You can read more about the security of the Groves School in our report of our night out and about with G4S!

The full FOI request and documents can be found here.