Category: Featured

Seven months after opening, It looks like Tŷ Pawb is now beginning to turn quite a few heads from across the country and beyond!

Following on from a fantastic review in The Observer and after making it on to the Royal Academy of Art’s top 10 exhibitions to see in the UK we’re now delighted to announce that Tŷ Pawb has made it on to the shortlist of an international award.

A BAD DEAL FROM WELSH GOVERNMENT MEANS WE’RE FORCED TO MAKE MORE CUTS. HAVE YOUR SAY…

A global list of finalists

The Civic Trust Awards scheme was established in 1959 to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment.

The awards are designed to encourage the very best in architecture and environmental design, to improve the built environment for us all through design, sustainability, inclusiveness and accessibility, but also to reward projects that offer a positive cultural, social, economic or environmental benefit to their local communities.

Tŷ Pawb has been selected as one of the 147 Regional Finalists on a list which includes buildings from across the world, including London, Texas, Miami, Copenhagen and Cape Town!

Applicants will be notified on Monday 17 December whether their scheme has been successful at National Panel stage (and therefore a 2019 Winner). Fingers crossed!

A fantastic endorsement for Wrexham

Lead Member for People – Communities, Partnerships Public Protection and Community Safety, Cllr Hugh Jones said: “I’m delighted that Tŷ Pawb is continuing to gain recognition and popularity on the national and international stage. The bold yet community focused design of the building is a feature which has already gathered a lot of positive media attention.

“This award identifies sustainability, inclusiveness and positive impacts on the local community and economy as key factors for it’s finalists so it’s a fantastic endorsement for Tŷ Pawb to reach this stage and it’s great to see Wrexham named on this list. It’s something we can all be very proud of and it’s a testament to the enthusiasm and commitment of the staff there who have worked so hard in these first few months.”

Find out more about the Civic Trust Awards here

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Over the past few years, more than £600k of investment has taken place at Ruabon from both ourselves and the Regional Transport consortia to develop Ruabon Station as a transport hub, providing car parking, a bus and rail interchange, improvements to waiting shelters, a new station entrance and CCTV.

But more funding is needed to improve step-free access at Ruabon, as currently, the northbound platform is linked to the southbound platform opposite by a footbridge, with no other way of accessing it.

A BAD DEAL FROM WELSH GOVERNMENT MEANS WE’RE FORCED TO MAKE MORE CUTS. HAVE YOUR SAY…

This means train users in wheelchairs or mobility scooters cannot access the northbound network if leaving via Ruabon Station; or cannot get off at Ruabon if coming back on a southbound service.

As well as wheelchair users, the issue also affects users with children or babies in buggies, or less mobile people with luggage.

Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, has written to Welsh Government the WLGA and the Department for Transport, outlining our aspirations to develop the station as a key link tourism link in North Wales – including improving access issues.

“Access will become increasingly important”

Cllr Bithell said: “We’ve been looking to help solve the issue of step-free access at stations in the county borough for some time, and members of the Executive Board agreed priorities for the rail network in the county borough when step-free access at Ruabon was outlined as one of our ambitions in our Rail in Wrexham report, published early in 2015.

“We know that the issue of access at our railway stations will become increasingly important with a new franchise in place for Wales and the Borders, and the likely increase in passengers using railways in the next few years.

“With that in mind, we will continue to lobby Welsh Government and the Department of Transport for further funds and support to improve our Network.  Those with impaired mobility should not have to make longer journeys or unnecessary trips if they want to use the trains.”

We have to make even more cuts…and ask taxpayers for more money. But before we do anything, we want to know what you think.

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The World War II siren at Wrexham County Borough Museum will sound at 10.00 am on Saturday November 10 as a mark of respect for all those who have served their country with the armed forces.

The siren will also sound the start of an event on Queens Square where you can see a World War 1 Mobile Trench and a Biplane – an original World War One Bristol Scout Static!

The trench will give you an opportunity to see just what life could have been like in the trenches of the Great War.

The Biplane is made up of a large number of original parts and is the only flying example left in the world.

The event is free and takes place between 10am and 4pm.

The Memorial Hall in Wrexham’s Town centre has had a bit of a refurb in time for the centenary of the end of the First World War on Sunday.

Built to commemorate those who died in the Second World War was built in 1956 and has since become home to several memorial plaques, both inside and outside the Hall.

In addition to the names of the WW2 dead there’s two bronze plaques dedicated to those who fell in WW1 and two plaques with the names of employees of the Borough Council who were killed in the two wars and a slate plaque which refers to the Burma Star.

Outside are memorials to the RWF, the familiar cenotaph where the annual Service of Remembrance takes place and also the Burma Bell, the Normandy Veterans Memorial, the Falklands Memorial and a memorial to Flt Lt D S A Lord VC, DFC, which used to stand on the corner of Grosvenor Road and Regent Street.

Visitors to the area were often a little “underwhelmed” when they viewed the areas or came to pay their respects and they have now been enhanced with new seating, standards and display panels recording the history of the Hall.

There’s also a new “wreath plinth” where wreaths and crosses can be laid by those who wish to wish to remember their friends and relatives in this way. Previously they were laid against the walls where they often fell down and could often look “abandoned”. Now they can be placed with respect.

The first wreath was laid by Mr Roy Bellis, in memory of his father Jack Bellis, former Royal Welch Fusilier and Normandy veteran who sadly passed away this year aged 102.

Outside the facia has been replaced and visitors will no longer be able to miss the reason the hall is there – as a Memorial to those who fell.

Cllr David Griffiths, Armed Forces Champion, said: “All this work to the Memorial Hall has been made possible by funding from the Armed Forces Community Fund Trust and we are very grateful for their support. The Memorial Hall is a very well known building but I sometimes feel we were beginning to forget why it was built and it very fitting that the history of the building along with the bench seating and standards really make it stand out as a place of memorial, humility and respect.”