‘Real Battle’ With Vacant Properties in Wrexham Town Centre

Work is currently underway to try and fight the ‘real battle’ the town has on its hands with vacant properties.

As part of the ongoing work by the number of volunteers and groups currently operating in Wrexham, plans are currently underway to help fill vacant properties in the Town Centre – however members of the Town Centre Forum yesterday admitted that they had a real battle on their hands.

Over the past few months several stores in Wrexham Town Centre have either relocated or have announced they are to close – including The Entertainer’s move to Eagles Meadow, Chevron’s relocation from Henblas Street to High Street, the closure of Iceland and upcoming closure of Soda on Queens Square and the sudden closure of Card Outlet.

Speaking at yesterday’s Town Centre Forum, Chairman Nigel Lewis said: “We’re now getting into more difficult things as to what we can do to reduce the number of empty properties in the town. The next issue is vacant properties and absent landlords.

“I don’t know how many of you have walked down Henblas Street recently, but it’s looking like a ghost town. We’ve had Iceland, a card shop closed and Soda across the way is also closing. Iceland was a very convenient store for people coming in on the bus, walking to the shop and then going home.”

One of the main issues facing Wrexham that was discussed, was the competition from out of town retail parks such as Cheshire Oaks and Broughton; which while providing a totally different offering to towns, do offer free car parking and a variety of bigger retail names.

Over the past few months a number of initiatives have taken place in the town to help generate footfall and make vacant properties appear more attractive to landlords and potential occupants. These have included the introduction of the Wrexham Street Festival and two town centre clean-ups.

Mr Lewis added: “We have a real battle on our hands we have to stop going backwards before we can come forwards. We have a number of property people involved, starting to speak to landlords and exploring what we can do together. Or do we accept the decline in the face out of out of town competitions.

“It’s a big challenge and one where we need to work with the council. One thing that came from the street festival was give home based businesses to trade in the town. Birlings home made fudge  wants to open shop in town and a make fudge in the shop window.

“We need to explore every opportunity we can so we can get them trading. 600 businesses were set up in Wrexham last year, how many set up in the town? Hopefully we can stop the decline of increasing empty units.”