This is what a new Memorial Hall in Wrexham city centre could look like

This is what a new Memorial Hall and remembrance plaza could look like in Wrexham City centre.

Plans for the circa £11m project would see development of memorial gardens and a piazza surrounding new building with a focus on making the memorial more central and having a far greater presence than it currently does.

Councillors discussed the plans partially in public, before moving to a secret ‘Part 2’ session to discuss the finances and other confidential elements of the proposed project that has emerged from a feasibility study.

Council Leader Mark Pritchard described the project as a ‘legacy’, in part of his presentation he said, “We understand the history, the heritage, the passion, the fallen – and what that memorial hall and the memorials around it represent.”

“I’ve been to many meetings in my time as a politician but this was a refreshing meeting, with the armed forces and nobody was left out, everybody was present. They all contributed to it. The debates evolved, and it was fantastic and it was quite refreshing.

“Everything that they’ve wanted, we believe we have put into this piece of work. They’re in full support of taking this forward.

“I’ll say for me, as an individual, this is the most important report that I have taken forward because of the history, the heritage and the those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and never came back.

“So it would be lovely if we could be looking back in many years time, and the Memorial Hall and the vision and everything what we want to achieve, we achieve it and we leave a legacy for future generations.”

Cllr Nigel Williams echoed those comments, adding his view from an economic development portfolio, “There is also a huge gap in Wrexham for an event space, which will cater for the size of events in the future. So hopefully, if this plan does come to fruition in few years, which be lovely to see, then we’ll have another fantastic building Wrexham can be proud of and hopefully, it’d be filled most most weekends with events”.

Cllr Dana Davies described the plans as ‘really exciting’ and asked for, and got, assurances that the plans would be put to public consultations as well as the extensive behind the scenes consultations that have already taken place – telling the meeting of her experience of the existing hall where she held her own wedding.

Officers injected some realism, noting that the recommendation was just “for officers to continue to work on a funding strategy, given that funding at this point isn’t isn’t absolutely secured” – although indications internally appear confident that plans will be successful.

The meeting progressed into “Part 2” secret session so nothing more was possible to report.

In that section it is possible answers to a question raised a on the Forums that queried who exactly owned the building and site – as ‘clarity’ on the issue was due to be made available to councillors.

Images have been circulated to Wrexham.com of the building – made public for the first time properly here:

A bonus image from Wrexham.com archives, of similar projections back from when the current building was planned…