Special council meeting to be held to discuss pausing demolition plans for ‘Centre 67’ old vicarage building

Plaid Cymru have called an Extraordinary General Meeting of Wrexham Council to debate a motion that aims to pause a planned demolition of a building in Rhosddu for six months.

In March Wrexham.com reported that an application to knock down the building had been submitted again for the building – also known as the Centre 67 building – on Rhosddu Road after a previous application effectively timed out.

The building was last used in around 2005 and there were hopes that it could be be turned into a community hub.

Future use of the site was mentioned in a partially secret meeting last year, with the possibility of social housing on the site referenced throughout the public section of the meeting.

Plaid Cymru councillors, led by Cllr Marc Jones, have now called an extraordinary meeting to prevent the demolition of the council-owned building and they have said the motion and call have been accepted, and thus the meeting will be held on Wednesday 23 June at 4pm.

Wrexham Council gathered and held the main business of their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, however it appears this motion (and one from the Labour Group on another matter) were refused and not added to the agenda. As a result the whole process, and cost, of arranging another meeting now has to take place.

Cllr Marc Jones said: “A demolition notice has been outstanding on the building for the past few weeks and scaffolding had gone up.

“I was hoping that this matter could have been discussed at the council’s Annual General Meeting but that was refused. So in order to ensure that this important building wasn’t demolished without any say from the community, I and my fellow Plaid Cymru councillors asked for an Extraordinary Meeting. I’m glad that we’ll now have the chance to make the case to all 52 councillors and see whether this council values our heritage and history or whether they want to spend £50,000 on demolishing it.

“Communities across Wrexham have had enough of having the council do things to them. It’s about time the council worked with communities and not against them.

“I’m confident that people in Rhosddu will be able to develop a plan to re-purpose this building for the good of the community – whether it’s creating jobs or providing a service or both. I’ve already had many imaginative suggestions and, if this motion is successful, we’ll develop a plan that will put the building back to work.”

The below is a copy from the Plaid Cymru group of the motion submitted:

This council notes the decision of the Executive Board in January 2020 to authorise demolition of the old Vicarage on Rhosddu Road. The stone and slate-clad building is structurally sound despite being derelict for the past 20 years.

This demolition decision was made without any public consultation and went against the view of the local councillor, who believes the building could be repurposed for community use. The demolition decision was taken before the pandemic and subsequent changes in the way people work, the lack of community space in which to meet and work in the vicinity and the need to consider local residents’ mental health and well-being mean that the decision needs to be revisited.

The building, a prominent historic building in the community, is now scheduled for demolition in the coming weeks at a cost of at least £50,000.

This council calls on the Executive Board to pause the demolition for six months to enable public consultation to take place on alternative uses for the building to benefit the community.

Signed
Cllr Marc Jones
Cllr Carrie Harper
Cllr Gwenfair Jones
Cllr Becca Martin
Cllr Phil Rees