“Massive investments” needed to respond to pandemic as discussions yet to start on some local practical steps to reopen town centre

Wrexham Council has indicated Welsh Government would need to fund steps to help reopening the town centre, with the Council Leader saying “there hasn’t been a discussion on providing hand-sanitisers as the town centre hasn’t opened”.

Last month the Welsh Government released a road map outlining the next phases of easing the lockdown when it is safe to do, with a sector based ‘traffic light’ applying across Welsh life which also includes making adaptions to the public realm – such as to the town centre.

We asked questions to the First Minister Mark Drakeford on the topic, who also said: “When we talk about the public realm and town centres, it is about intensely practical things that will prepare for the day when people can return in large numbers to them.

“We’ve seen in other parts of the world, that when areas are opened up, and people don’t feel safe about going to them, people just don’t go. So we will want people to feel safe going back into our town centres.

“And there are some very practical things we’re doing with our local authorities now, to prepare for the day when people will be able to do that safely.”

Ahead of next week’s first executive board since March that is considering reports on the pandemic response and recovery, we asked the Chief Executive of Wrexham Council, Ian Bancroft and Council Leader Mark Pritchard what the local authority’s responsibility is in terms of remodelling the town centre over the short term and longer 12-18 months recovery period.

We also asked what changes they believe will need to be made to people safe while visiting the town.

Cllr Pritchard said that the council had been lobbying for additional money and a “massive investment” for town centres will be needed going forward.

He said: “It’s within the hands of both governments.

“We’ve been doing the day job as well campaigning and pressurising, everybody to put invest money in town centre.

“Remember this isn’t just Wrexham. This is all of the town centres and cities across Wales.

“Now, if the Welsh Government come out, and they say they’re going to announce £10 million for town centres, it’s not going to work. If you divide that between 22 and the amount of money which is needed, it’s not enough.

“There needs to be massive investments and they need to have big aspirations to deliver changes in the town centre.”

Cllr Pritchard also pointed the finger at politicians who have campaigned for improvements in the town to come forward and help lobby for future investment.

He added: “I think it’s important for me because I won’t let people forget it, MPs and prospective candidates use the town centre as a political debate. Some candidates were elected and some weren’t.

“I will hold them candidates to account because they’re committed to getting money for Wrexham and rightly so.

“There’s a lot going on. While I can assure you that we as a council are very ambitious for this town, you know, all of us, the administration, and even the opposition, to be fair, we want to improve Wrexham.

“We’ve had meetings with Ken Skates, Hannah Blythen about town centre regeneration. We have spoken to everybody and we are relentless on it.”

Mr Bancroft added: “In terms of the town centre if you remember we set out a really clear vision before the COVID situation around the town centre, including making sure that we could invest in vacant properties and we were looking at a property fund that we will need support from Welsh Government for.

“We were looking at setting up grant and loan funds for social entrepreneurs, again that we need investment from Welsh Government, we’re talking to the Development Bank about that. We were looking at creating clearer ways into the town centre and gateways, including the Wrexham Gateway and the football ground.

“We were looking at better route ways through the town centre. If you remember we had a prospectus and I think we’re all even more relevant now in terms of being able to redesign the town centre in a way that’s appropriate as we come out of COVID-19,

“As the leader said that was shared with all the cabinet ministers in the Welsh Government, MPs, our assembly members, and we’ve got a common group working on it across Wrexham as well as all councillors

“So I think there is a unified commitment to the vision for the town central clearly, that’s being worked on with big businesses.”

We pointed out that other towns there is provision being and already been put in place for social distancing and portable hand sanitisers being brought in, we also highlighted common ‘touch points’ such as car parking machines. With the focus being on wider long term projects, we asked if the previous answer meant Wrexham would not be provided with those sorts of facilities unless Welsh Government provided funding.

Cllr Pritchard said: “Not really, there hasn’t been a discussion on providing hand-sanitisers as the town centre hasn’t opened.

He said: “To give an example, if Ty Pawb was open I’m sure that they’ll probably put some hand-sanitisers and things like that on a preventative side. If if the swimming pool will reopen I’m sure there will be sanitisers there.

“If the reception in the Guildhall reopened I’m sure we would look at the risks, mitigate them put on hand sanitisers there. So it probably will happen. Yes. And I think it would be it would be warranted.

“So I haven’t a problem with that.”

Mr Bancroft added that a collaborative approach was needed with the likes of the Town Centre Forum to ‘agree how it is done’ on such local practical steps, adding “We all have a role to play in that in terms of across sectors. I think that’s a really important discussion as we start to come out of lockdown.”

Later it was confirmed by Cllr Hugh Jones that social distancing and hand-sanitisers would provided at Ty Pawb, and are clearly defined as part of a ‘recovery plan’ for the building.

Last week Wrexham.com reported that the local authority had submitted a £3m ‘Active Travel’ wish list to Welsh Government for changes such as social distancing signage in the town centre.

However it is unclear if there is a further pot of cash for the urgent changes to respond to the pandemic, or if this list has been submitted by Wrexham Council in time for a current tranche. The ‘Active Travel’ information report on the Executive Board agenda page links to an internal URL, so is not public.

On the Welsh Government website at the end of May a range of Active Travel schemes were published as funded for the 2020-21 year, however Wrexham and Bridgend were the only two authorities with no schemes noted, with the document stating the cash had been ‘awarded’ to others.

Cllr David A Bithell, deputy council leader and lead member for environment and transport, said: “We have put a bid in just short of £3 million and so obviously, there’s quite a lot of schemes in there.

“Picking up on some of the key points is social distancing, school crossing patrol sites, restoration of cycle routes, public footpath upgrades, review of on-street parking and pedestrian zones that may or may not cover the town centre as we move forward and look out to operate differently.

“One of the things that I picked up during lockdown is people are doing things differently whether they’re at home, or whether they travel into work.

“I’m sure from a climate view, it’s really encouraging really, how car use has dropped off and I think the council declared a climate emergency last year. It does give us an opportunity to build on the work that we did and what we are currently on.”