“Careful consultation important” with Springfield residents as council communications under spotlight again

A local councillor has said ‘careful consultation’ is important with residents and staff affected by the upcoming large council redevelopment in Rhosddu.

We are told some staff first discovered the news that the large scale redevelopment had the green light following our article on September 25th, rather than Wrexham Council proactively informing them.

That article noted that the Rhosddu development is set to progress, and the council will “…commence a period of consultation with the contract holders, staff and unions on the proposal to decommission the Housing scheme and the adjoining site”

We asked Wrexham Council why some stakeholders were left in the dark, and when the consultations would begin. We also referenced a meeting this week that we had been told about and enquired if the Lead Member would be attending.

Cllr David Bithell, Lead Member for Housing said “Staff members have been made aware of the potential site development.

“We are in the early stages of consultation where the future use of this site will be consulted on. This will be an extremely important and exciting project development that will be of huge benefit to the community.”

We further asked if it was possible to clarify if such awareness was before or after the article was published.

There was no reply.

Local councillor Marc Jones said: “The redevelopment of the council’s Rhosddu Road site is an important step to provide new council housing in the area, which has high housing demand.

“It’s important that there is careful consultation with residents of Springfield, which is also part of the redevelopment. I will continue to liaise with staff and residents to make sure their views are represented in this process.”

The situation mirrors poor communications before Christmas regarding the ‘decommissioning’ of Earles Court / Pleasant View, where Wrexham.com had spotted information published by Wrexham Council, in public , on the Wrexham Council website and queried it. Cllr Bithell got in touch concerned that residents were unaware, and we agreed to hold off on the non-time sensitive article until the new year until that process was underway.