A COMMUNITY has launched a battle to save its last remaining pub.

Caia Park residents are campaigning to save the Red Dragon in Prince Charles Road after controversial plans emerged to shut it down.

Over the past two years landlord and landlady Paul and Linda Slater have been breathing new life into the pub, turning it into a true community hub with a range of sports teams and social events.

This has gone down well with people living nearby as the pub had previously been closed for a number of years.

But now there are plans to turn the building into a unit for the rehabilitation of people recovering from brain injuries, which regulars fear will call time on their favourite watering hole.

A group of them have now started a petition to persuade the brewery which owns it, Admiral Taverns, to keep the Red Dragon in business.

The application to change the use of the premises has been submitted to Wrexham Council by TRU (Transitional Rehabilitation Unit) Ltd, of Haydock on Merseyside.

It wants to convert the building to provide a supported group for seven adults with acquired brain injury (ABI).

Kath Williams, who lives and works on the estate and has organised the petition, said: “We don’t want to lose it as a pub because it is now the last one in this area.

“We believe it should stay because under the new landlord and landlady it has become a real hub of the community.

“Virtually all our other community facilities have been taken away.

“We are not against the planning application as such, we just want to save our pub.”

More than 200 signatures have been collected so far, but organisers are hoping for more than 1,000.

Landlady Linda Slater said: “We really love this place and want to see it kept as a pub.”

Jill Howell, of Caia Park Community Council, said when members considered the application at their meeting last week they raised no objections to the TRU scheme but voiced their view that the pub should not be lost to the community.

A spokesman for Admiral Taverns said: “The Red Dragon is being sold as it no longer fits with our portfolio. We are in the process of exchanging contracts with a buyer and have no further comment to make at this stage.”

No-one at TRU Ltd was available for comment.