By Sarah Atherton

MP for Wrexham

Over the past week, with Parliament now in recess, I have been out in Wrexham soaking up the sun and meeting with residents, businesses and community groups to listen to concerns, to hear about how things have been going as our town reopens, and to provide help and advice. It goes without saying that hearing what the residents of Wrexham think is nothing new. Throughout the year my team and I deal with a large amount of casework – over 6000 cases in the past year – but there is still nothing like being out in Wrexham to speak with constituents directly!

As you may know, supporting our town centre businesses and improving the high street in Wrexham are two of my key areas of focus. Of late, the issues I have been focusing on in relation to Wrexham’s town centre may well have seemed overriding negative, whether that be issues with parking, a lack of public toilet facilities in town or the number of vacant premises in our town centre.

However, following my visits to the town centre I have come away feeling positive – people are out enjoying themselves; shops and restaurants are reopening; and there are new developments on the high street bringing people back in and rejuvenating the townscape. At Wrexham Lager, I heard about the exciting ‘Summer Sessions’ event that took place on Sunday and at the Frisky Pudding on the High Street I saw their new and improved outdoor seating area.

Significantly, it has also been good to be able to facilitate a dialogue between those that have raised concerns with me over the past months and those can help solve the problems. Meeting with the local Policing team in the town centre, for example, allowed for conversations to take place between them and those that have contacted me with issues. I also met me the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner raising casework and discussing future initiatives that aim to make our Wrexham streets safer.

Going forward, I will also be meeting with the Council’s town centre team and Community Councils, which again will help forge a dialogue between different individuals and groups across the town. This will enable us all to work collectively to solve the issues and discuss the concerns that some have about our high street.

Finally, I also held a Saturday street surgery in the town centre and, again, it was good to see people out and about. Again, it was also a great opportunity to answer questions from constituents or hear about their concerns to raise these with the relevant authorities.

As always if you are resident in Wrexham and need my assistance with any local or national issue, please make contact with me by emailing sarah.atherton.mp@parliament