Wrexham’s Town Centre Forum has welcomed the council’s free parking plan over the Christmas period.

During certain days in the lead up to Christmas, parking will be free after 3pm at many of Wrexham Council’s car parks in order to boost the town centre’s footfall, including Waterworld, Wrexham Library, St George’s Crescent, Crescent Road and St Giles.

During the build up to Christmas, Wrexham will be playing host to a number of events which will tie in with the free parking initiative, these include the annual Christmas Light Switch On event, which will be held on November 14, the Victorian Market, which will be held on December 5, late night shopping, which will be held on December 12 and 19 and the Wrexham Christmas Village, which will be held on December 13 until December 15.

Cllr Mark Pritchard, leader of Wrexham Council, said: “We’re very pleased to be making this offer, particularly as we are currently experiencing financially challenging times.

“We also have some excellent events lined up for the Christmas period and we are all keen to ensure that visitors have a great experience and that traders are able to capitalise on the added footfall that events such as these bring.

“Parking charges are always high on the agenda and although we cannot offer free car parking 24/7, we have taken a look at the situation to see what we can do right now to benefit traders and ensure we have the income to continue to maintain our car parks at their current standards.

“The majority of our car parks are covered by CCTV, and all of our are car parks are reasonably priced.

“Dependent on the success of the Christmas promotional event programme, specifically the ‘free after 3pm’ initiative, I intend to bring a report to a future meeting of the executive board to consider a longer term roll-out of this initiative.”

“We all read about the problems encountered with local and private car parks in the town centre, and it’s reassuring that the same issues are not encountered in council run car parks.”

Wayne Price, chair of the Wrexham Town Centre Forum, said: “This is excellent news.

“Anything that helps to support local businesses, shops and traders of Wrexham must be congratulated. We thank the council for this move.”

The Wrexham Town Centre Forum is a partnership between businesses, third party sector organisations, other stakeholders and both the officers and councillors at Wrexham Council, with a view to improve the town centre.

Vice-chair, Andy Gallanders added: “We wrote to the council leader and chief executive after a meeting with the market traders a few weeks ago - they expressed a wish for car parking support over the festive period.

“We promised that we would ask if Wrexham Council would explore car parking offers for Christmas.

“Thus, members of the Forum are extremely happy that they have announced the plan.”

Member of the forum’s steering group, Daphne Roberts, said: “Free parking after 3pm, will cater for families straight after school.

“Whilst heaping praise on the council I hope this could be the start of many schemes to strengthen local businesses within the town and improve its vibrancy.”

The Tŷ Pawb car park is not included in the free parking initiative.

For further information on the free parking initiative, visit www.wrexham.gov.uk