Wrexham’s markets refurbishment impact: Butcher to close & council defend support offered

The council have detailed offers of support to traders, amid claims the impact of the refurbishment of the Butcher’s Market has resulted in a business announcing it will close at the end of the month.

Paul Bowring, owner of GC Hughes Butchers in the Butcher’s Market has announced he is closing his business at the end of the month after four decades of trade.

Paul laid the blame for the closure mainly at Wrexham Council in a public statement with the ongoing works impacting his ability to trade.

The Butcher’s Market was opened in 1848 and the General Market in 1879 and landlords Wrexham Council along with traders long agreed they needed essential maintenance, repairs and modernisation.

The multi million pound refurbishment and ‘regeneration‘ of the Butchers and General Market includes new layouts, a WiFi network, CCTV, improved storage facilities and flexible space as well as the entrance to the Butchers Market being ‘enhanced’ to draw people into the market building and improve connectivity with the town centre.

This work has commenced after a slight delay, with all traders  – aside from the butcher and the cafe –  moving to Queens Square.

The statement from the butcher however points to significant issues with the works terminally affecting his business, he said “It is with great sadness that after nearly 40 years in the market I will be closing the business at the end of this month (September).

“When the planned renovation of the Butchers Market was announced a few years ago, I like many other traders, were happy to finally see investment after years of stagnation. The councils plan was to work around me, which although I knew would be challenging, but I was assured that cleanliness would be a priority and extra care would be taken. Sadly I don’t feel that this has been to the required standard and it leaves me with no alternative but to leave. The noise levels and lack of clear signage / promotion have also been a factor.

“After voicing my concerns a fortnight or so ago, I was offered an alternative temporary location. Sadly it is not suitable for my business and the timescales I have been given are unrealistic.

“Thank you to all our customers that have supported us over the years. Please pop by this week and see us if you get a chance.”

With alterations to market space being a project Wrexham Council have managed before with the at times painful transition from the People’s Market to Ty Pawb, plus long held concerns over the impact to traders of the current project, we asked the council about the issues raised and how they echoed recent history.

We also asked for comment on the assurances over cleanliness not being met, along with the failure to find alternative suitable temporary locations. We asked what had happened, and why.

Wrexham Council sent us an unusually detailed statement, copied below in full, that matches an internal council feeling that they had ‘bent over backwards’ to try and help traders, and where issues had arisen there had been generous financial resource used or offered to resolve them. This is in contrast to 2016 when the council was criticised for not supporting traders sufficiently during the ‘arts hub’ conversion of the Peoples’ Market, that also saw a similar pledge to work around traders during works being torn up.

Wrexham Council said;

Throughout the planning, decant and construction stages, the council has been engaged in dialogue with traders at the Butchers and General Markets to make the transitions as smooth as possible, and to accommodate their needs and requests as best we can.

Sourcing a decant location for traders took time as we were keen on having a building suitable for all traders in a prominent city centre location. The decant site is now located at a prominent location on Queens Square, and this is where the majority of traders who have stayed with us now operate from.

Compensation was offered to all traders if they decided to leave the markets rather than move into the decant buildings on Queens Square or stay in the Butchers Market.

The butchers did not take the opportunity to relocate with the main traders so we have worked with the butchers and café to ensure that they remain in-situ during the refurbishment works.

To accommodate the butchers and café’s decision to stay in situ during the refurbishment we adapted our plans to ensure that keeping both businesses as part of the design and delivery process was key to the refurbishment of the Butchers Market.

We adapted the timings of our construction works to ensure that the phased approach was part of the procurement process so contractors from day one were made aware of two traders continuing to trade during the refurbishment of the Butchers Market.

We have been engaging with both the café and the butchers on the designs of their newly relocated stall areas; and; the equipment that would be required for these two businesses to be relocated within the market.

Upon commencement of the construction work we had several concerns raised in relation to dust and noise related to the construction work and several fixes were offered:

• The Council to pay for a cleaning service to come into the market at 6.30am each day of trading to remove any dust that might have settled from the previous day’s work;
• The contractor to extend the barrier from the ceilings fixed to the metal herras fencing to reduce dust;
• Closure of the through access / walkway corridor to reduce the impact of further dust /contamination during internal construction works between the café and the butcher’s unit;
• Fit out unit 29 & 29a in WCBC ownership with a double shop front window that will take 4 weeks to refurbish to allow the butchers to move stock into the premise during the main contract refurbishment (offered a viewing on September 8th)

The two stalls will continue to be refurbished, ensuring that a butcher’s counter will be at the Butchers Market once the building has completed its refurbishment.

Throughout the process we have aimed to keep both traders and the public fully informed on the works at the markets through a combination of timely blog posts, press releases, social media posts, radio/print/web advertising as well as physical assets such as posters shared around the city centre.

Officers worked closely with Mr Bowring throughout the entire process to support his needs, unfortunately, despite the mitigations offered, we were not able to come to a satisfactory resolution and are sad to hear that one of our longest serving market traders has decided to break their association with the markets, and we wish them all the very best in the future.

Remember…

Butchers and General Market traders are now at Units 5, 7 and 9 on Queens Square, whilst renovations to the historic markets take place – Tracey’s Café and Paul the Butchers will remain at the Butchers market @mad4movieswxm pic.twitter.com/Y6sxUtlRwO

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) August 9, 2023