A LOCAL councillor has asked to work with whoever secures The Ebenezer Chapel, should he fail to secure the building himself.

The building has remained closed since 2013, and Wrexham County Borough Council have announced that it will no longer go to auction, but they will listen to offers and proposals of its usage instead.

Cefn & Cefn Mawr Community Council have offered £200,000 for The Ebenezer and plan to turn it into an Arts and Crafts Centre, as well as a tourist information centre to help with the regeneration of the local area.

However, councillor Dave Metcalfe has said that should somebody else secure the building, he would like to work with them for the greater good of the World Heritage Site.

“As a point to note as we are not aware of the other bidders, we would like to say this to them, if they do have a community use for the building that is better than ours, we would be happy to work with them.

“This is not a competition about who gets the building, it is about rebuilding the economy of our community after years of downward decline through segregation form the WHS.”

The former Ebenezer Chapel was expected to be a beacon of regeneration in the village when it was refurbished back in 2007.

However, despite attempts to generate business and community interest, the building closed in 2013 and has remained vacant for the last six years.

Wrexham County Borough Council initially wanted to auction off the building to the highest bidder, but decided against the idea, stating on the council website:

“We have been listening to the concerns of the local community, and one of the issues which came through clearly was the concern that the building could be sold and then put to use in a way which [would] not help the future regeneration of the village.

“While we are not obliged to accept any of the offers we receive, this will allow us to consider a range of proposals for the use of the building and ensure that it achieves a fair price.”

Mr Metcalfe added: “Please be assured we sincerely want to work with WCBC simply because to be successful we must work as a team.

“Unless we start to work together for Sustainable Tourism Development that ends the segregation of our community from the World Heritage Site, the state of affairs is only going to deteriorate further.”