Campaigners challenge leisure centre closure costs

Campaigners fighting to retain two leisure centres say proposals to close them would save only £97,000 a year.

The campaigners met this week to build opposition to Wrexham Council's plan to axe Plas Madoc, which is used by people from Lllangollen, along with the Waterworld leisure centre in Wrexham as part of a cost-saving exercise.

They point out that the proposed savings from closing the two centres and building a smaller pool complex next door to the existing Waterworld site would only save £97,000 a year, according to a report by consultants. 
Alison Roberts, for the campaign, said: "The savings of £886,000 do not account for any demolition or site clearance costs, which are likely to be substantial. I think we need to question the reliability of the repairs and maintenance costs. 

"The huge and disproportionate figure given for Plas Madoc was derived from a conditional survey, based on a visual assessment. We question this and request an independent in-depth assessment to ascertain true and reliable figures. 

"These are well-used leisure facilities that our communities want to maintain. It's vital that the council takes that on board before making any decision."
The council's executive board will vote on January 14 on whether to go ahead with the closure proposal and the campaign is planning to unite local communities in a mass protest on the Saturday before outside Plas Madoc.
Fellow campaigner Darrell Wright said: "We're organising a peaceful but noisy protest for all the community outside Plas Madoc at mid-day on Saturday, January 11 to show how much our leisure centre means to us.

"This is where local children learn to swim and play, where adults can use a gym and other sports facilities and where people can get rehab in the community. Lots of various sports groups meet there and will be left homeless if the council presses ahead with these short-sighted plans .

"We want people to turn up with pots and pans to make some noise as well as wearing their sports gear.
"This has all happened so suddenly just before Christmas and many people we've spoken to while collecting signatures on our petitions were unaware of the threat to close. So we've got to act quickly and make sure everyone puts pressure on the 10 councillors on the executive board to consider the impact on the community before the close these sporting facilities.

"We hope the thousands who are on our Facebook page, the thousands who&n bsp;have already signed our petitions and everyone who is against this foolish plan will turn out on the 11th to show their support.  We will also be lobbying the meeting in the Guildhall on Tuesday, January 14."
* The cost of closing both Waterworld and Plas Madoc is £886,000; the cost of building a smaller Waterworld is £789,000 per year. The figures are taken from the consultants' report - http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/MinutesData/HomesEnvCom/Reports/haed5913s.pdf (page 22 of the consultant's report at the end of the committee report).

All the best for 2014 from llanblogger!

Chirk man gets CBE in New Year's Honours

A scientist from Chirk has been made a CBE in the New Year's Honours List.

For the full story see: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/new-years-honours-katherine-jenkins-6455539

Body found under bridge near Chirk bypass, says ITV

... Traffic Wales said at 4pm that the A483 is now open in both directions from Ruabon to Halton following the earlier closure due to the accident ... 


The ITV news website is reporting this afternoon (Monday) that the body of a woman has been found beneath a bridge over the A483 Chirk bypass.

According to the story, North Wales Police say the body was discovered at around 1.30pm just north of the Halton roundabout.

The woman has not yet been identified, but her death is being treated as unexplained.

A stretch of the A483 - between the A5 Halton roundabout and the A539 J1 Ruabon - will be closed while investigations are carried out. Diversions are in place, adds the story.

Senior church figure retires

* The Venerable Shirley Griffiths with pupils from Ysgol Dyffryn Iâl in Llandegla.

The most senior woman in the Diocese of St Asaph – the Venerable Shirley Griffiths, Archdeacon of Wrexham – will retire at the end of December.

As Archdeacon, Shirley has carried out work on behalf of the Bishop of St Asaph in Wrexham and in parts of Flintshire, Denbighshire and Gwynedd.  She was the first female Archdeacon in the Diocese of St Asaph.

Shirley has served in the Diocese as a Reader (lay leader), a Deacon and a Priest before becoming Archdeacon in 2010.  Her ministry has spanned 40 years.  She was one of the first three women to become Readers in the Diocese of St Asaph before being made Deacon here in 1982 and then being ordained as a Priest in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds in 1995.

Reflecting on her time with the Church, Shirley said: “Having started at a time when women couldn’t even take a service in the Church I’m retiring at a time when the Church in Wales has just agreed that women can be Bishops – not that I would ever want to do that, there’s enough hassle as an Archdeacon!

“I’ve got mixed feelings about retirement because I enjoy my work very much and I shall miss visiting parishes, working with clergy and being part of the Bishop’s staff team – although there are some problems I shall be happy to stop dealing with – fortunately the good parts have outweighed the difficult parts.”

Shirley has served as Rector of Llandegla and Vicar of Bryneglwys during her time as Archdeacon of Wrexham and helped to see a new school building for pupils at Ysgol Dyffryn Iâl come to fruition.  She has helped the children to produce a banner for their new facilities and will carry on being creative in her retirement.

She added: “I’m looking forward to taking up needlework again.  I used to teach it many years ago and I have very little time for doing it these days so I look forward to improving my needlework skills.”

The new Archdeacon of Wrexham will be the Revd Prebendary Bob Griffiths who will begin work on New Year’s Day.

Fatal collision near Llandegla

Police are appealing for information following a fatal road traffic collision near Llandegla earlier today, Sunday December 29.

Emergency services were called just after 12.30pm to reports of a collision between a Ford Fiesta and a Mercedes van on the roundabout at the junction of the A5104 and the A542.

 

The female driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene and a female passenger was airlifted to hospital in Stoke with serious injuries.

 

The van driver sustained minor injuries and was taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

 

Anyone who witnessed the collision is asked to call North Wales Police on 101.

Former surveyor speaks out over Plas Madoc closure

* Plas Madoc Leisure Centre which is proposed for closure.

A FORMER senior surveyor has slammed Wrexham Council for spending almost £52,000 on consultants to advise on the shape of its future leisure provision.

 

Mike Edwards, who served as valuer and estate surveyor to the former Wrexham Maelor Council, recently submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the current Wrexham Council asking how much the authority had spent on commissioning a review of its leisure facilities by the Sports Consultancy.

 

Against a background of budget cuts of nearly £14 million for 2014-15, the review led to a proposal by council chiefs just before Christmas to build a new leisure centre to replace Waterworld in Wrexham town centre by borrowing an estimated £11.9m and closing Plas Madoc Leisure Centre, which is regularly used by many people from the Llangollen area.

The consultants have stated an estimated £857,000 will be saved by closing Plas Madoc as well as closing gyms at Ysgol Clywedog and Queensway leisure centre, and handing back dual use facilities to schools, with the exception of Ysgol Clywedog’s swimming pool.

The proposals, which are due to before the council's executive board for approval early in the new year, have led to a storm of protest from users of Plas Madoc who have started their own Facebook page to oppose the closure which currently has over 2,500 members.

 

Mr Edwards submitted his FoI request for details of consultancy fees and has received a reply from the council’s Assets & Economic Development department, which says: “The amount paid to consultants as part of the Leisure Review was in two stages. £26,760 was paid in stage 1 of the review and £25,000 in stage 2 giving a total of £51,760.”

 

Mr Edwards said: “As Valuer and Estate Surveyor to the former Wrexham Maelor Council it is depressing to see the County Borough Council considering closing and disposing of facilities and assets.

“The former Groves School and old offices on Grosvenor Road have now stood empty, boarded up and derelict for numerous years as example evidence of the poor asset management practices now pervading. 

“The previous authorities, Wrexham RDC and Maelor, worked very hard to provide all these around the area for the benefit of the residents of the whole area not just the town of Wrexham, so I was even more perplexed to hear that the council had employed external consultants to advise them on the future of leisure services.

 

“Clearly the authority has little, if any, confidence in their qualified, officers who they pay to advise them and manage these facilities.

 

“Or is it just that when unacceptable recommendations are put on the table, it is the consultants who are placed in the firing line not the paid officials or elected representatives?”

 

He added: “Just to make the situation even more depressing for the council tax payers of the county borough I have discovered that the council have spent £52,000 to date on employing these consultants.

“Surely this is a total waste of public money which could have been spent on those very assets or services which the local authority are considering closing and centralising to the detriment of the residents in the villages and peripheral parts of the borough.”