Category: People & Place

The summer holidays aren’t a time for hiding away indoors.

They’re a time to get outdoors – and get active!

Freedom Leisure, which runs our Leisure and Activity Centres, is challenging kids to stay active during the summer holidays with its annual Junior Summer Fitness Challenge.

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Now in its seventh year, the award-winning challenge encourages hundreds of kids each year to keep themselves fit during the school holidays.

Register online

To take part in the Junior Summer Fitness Challenge, children can register online and download and print their own fitness diary (with the help of a parent or guardian)

For each 10 activities successfully completed, children will be given a reward voucher and a small prize – with the aim of getting them fired up for the next 10 activities!

The activities involved don’t have to be anything difficult.

They can be playing football in the garden, cycling, skateboarding or even walking the dog.

Kids just need to keep active and bring their diaries in to their nearest Freedom Leisure centre for their reward voucher.

Freedom Leisure runs Wrexham Council Leisure and Activity Centres at Waterworld, Chirk, Queensway and Gwyn Evans.

Don’t forget free swimming!

If you’re looking for an easy way to fill up those activities, or are just looking to cool off from the summer hear, our pools are offering free swimming sessions for Under 16s throughout the hols.

A full list of free swimming sessions across all three of our pools at Waterworld, Chirk and Gwyn Evans is available here.

All sessions are free to Under 16s with a valid Leisure Card.

Just contact the individual centres to book a space.

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Carbon footprint? One of those “buzz” phrases that we’re all using to sound cool or something we’re really working hard on? Reducing our carbon footprint means that we are doing our bit to improve life in Wrexham.

Here in Wrexham we have a programme that’s really beginning to see results and here’s just some of the things we’ve been up to.

“Installing vehicle charging points”

Last March we reported that we’d be installing electric charging points costing £150,000 in some of our car parks. Well since then our officers have been busy sorting through tenders and we’ll be bringing you some news very shortly of when they’ll be installed and how soon you can start using them.

There’ll be five sites – Waterworld, Tŷ Pawb, Tŷ Mawr Country Park, Alyn Waters Country Park and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – and we see them as Phase 1 of preparing for the expected increase in the use of electric cars in the coming years.

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You can read more here about charging points below:

Get set to be all charged Up

“Schools improvements”

Some of our schools have also seen energy improvements by upgrading to better Building Management Systems – these will not only see a reduction in energy use but will mean that financial savings as a result will pay for the improvements in a few years time. How cool is that!

We’re also and installing and improving connections to boilers in other schools in the county borough and improving lighting systems.

“LED lighting”

£70,000 has been spent on installing LED street lights in the town centre and we’re now identifying other areas to benefit from this type of energy efficient lighting.

In total we’re spending over £400,000 on reducing our carbon footprint and in many cases such as the BMS upgrades in schools there will be payback in a few years.

“How have we paid for these improvements?”

The various schemes have been paid for by the income generated from our solar farm in Legacy – this opened in 2017 and it saves 1,300 tonnes of CO2 per year and generates 2,355 MWh of electricity annually – that’s enough to power 700 homes!

Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “As a local council we have a duty to take the lead when looking at energy efficiency. Finding the funds  is a challenge to us and most other local authorities but the opening of the solar farm in Legacy has proved invaluable to us to continue the improvement works across the county borough.”

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Wrexham welcomes the Welsh Government’s announcement that their funded childcare offer for three and four-year-olds is to be expanded to a further seven local authorities across Wales, including Wrexham.

Under the childcare offer, working parents will receive a combined total of 30 hours of early education and childcare during term time and up to 30 hours per week for up to nine weeks of the school holidays. The current free early education provided by the Foundation Phase will form part of this offer.

Eligible parents will receive up to 48 weeks per year of funded childcare whilst their three and four-year-olds are attending Funded Early Education or Foundation Phase Nursery.

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“Great news for parents”

Audrey Somerton Edwards, the Chair of the Wrexham Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership said: “The EYDCP is fully behind the implementation of this childcare offer. It gives Wrexham an opportunity to bring Early Years Education and childcare provision together in such a way as to benefit both.

“It is great news for Wrexham parents, children, Early Education and childcare providers”.

In North Wales, as one of the pilot authorities, Flintshire has led the development of the childcare offer, alongside Anglesey and Gwynedd, and it is now available in Wrexham and Conwy.

Flintshire will be lending their expertise to Wrexham Council as we introduce the Offer. In this way, Wrexham will be able to maximise take up by parents and childcare providers.

Wrexham parents can now apply online, via the Wrexham Family Information Service webpage or the Flintshire childcare offer webpage, through a link to the well-established Flintshire online system.

“Parents and providers are keen to take up this offer”

Cllr William Baldwin, Lead Member for Children’s Social Care Services, said:

“I am delighted that Wrexham has been selected by Welsh Government to implement the childcare offer as an Early Implementer from September this year.

This offer will help many more parents to go to work, knowing that their children are being looked after in a high quality setting.

“Parents and childcare providers in Wrexham are keen to take up this offer and we are confident that the excellent online system developed by Flintshire Council will make the process of applying as straightforward as possible”.

In Wrexham, the childcare offer will be implemented first in the following wards in September 2018: Bronington, Brymbo, Coedpoeth, Gresford East and West Gwersyllt East and South, Gwersyllt North, Gwersyllt West, Holt, Llay, Marford and Hoseley, New Broughton, Rossett, Overton and Ponciau.

Parents wanting to know more should contact the Wrexham Family Information Service on fis@wreham.gov.uk or 01978 292094. The rest of Wrexham will also go live during the following year, with the next roll out areas soon to be announced.

“Help to address childhood poverty”

Cllr Andrew Atkinson, Lead Member for Youth Services and Anti-Poverty said: “This offer will help to support the wellbeing of children and their families and will help to address childhood poverty in Wrexham directly by increasing working household’s disposable incomes”.

If parents living the first group of wards want to know if they are eligible for the childcare offer, they can check online here.

Further information can be obtained from the Wrexham Family Information Service on fis@wreham.gov.uk or 01978 292094.

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If you’re in town during the holidays with children be sure to drop into our markets and take advantage of free activities.

Every Thursday and Friday during August there’ll be balloon modelling, magic shows and everyone’s favourites… puppets!

You can catch them at the following times:

• 11am – 1.30pm Butchers’ Market
• 12 noon – 12.30pm General Market
• 1.30pm – 2pm Butchers’ Market
• 2.30pm – 3pm General Market

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