Several businesses have talked to me about is the potential to pedestrianise'

MP for Wrexham

One of my duties as the Member of Parliament for Wrexham is to promote our town as a place to shop, do businesses and socialise. This is why improving our town centre is one of my main priorities, and one area in which I have been doing much work over the past weeks, including by speaking with town centre businesses to find out what they want from our town.

One area of redevelopment that several businesses have talked to me about is the potential to pedestrianise – on a permanent or a temporary basis – the High Street. The High Street is full of brilliant hospitality businesses, many of which would like to spread out into the street with space for outdoor dining. Currently, due to traffic on the road this isn’t possible. It has also been noted that during the evenings, when the street can be particularly busy with people going in and out of the night-time venues, there is a danger to pedestrians from the road users meaning the pedestrianisation of this street might well create a safer environment too.

Lots of businesses along the High Street have already contacted me to let me know their thoughts about this plan and if you have any comments then please do make contact to raise them. I want to hear your thoughts – positive and negative – about this proposal to make sure it supports what Wrexham residents want from their town centre.

I am pleased nonetheless that Wrexham Council do seem to be taking this proposal seriously as they have confirmed to me that they are looking into the options for street scene changes along the High Street along the lines of pedestrianisation. To keep momentum on this going, it is all the more important for you to raise your thoughts about the proposals with me so that I can represent your views, so do let me know via email or using the form on my website at: https://www.sarahatherton.org.uk/news/redeveloping-wrexhams-town-centre.

In addition, you may well have read about my recent parking survey or seen coverage of it on social media. The parking survey provided a great opportunity to hear about what Wrexham residents think about the parking options in our town. The results showed that many feel the parking facilities in Wrexham do more to discourage people from coming to Wrexham than they do encourage and as such I made Wrexham Council aware of the results.

I am pleased that they have now responded to these results, noting that “as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic we will be considering our long-term approach to our Council-owned car parks”. My hope is that the Council will recognise – as my results suggested – that some of their recent schemes such as the ‘free-after-11’ have proved popular with residents and have helped support businesses, traders, and the local economy. I therefore hope that the Council will look favourably upon continuing these schemes to help encourage people into the town as we exit the pandemic. Going forward, I will be making the argument that parking should be cheaper in Wrexham, as this is what respondents to the survey wanted, to support our town.

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.uk. My monthly newsletter will also be reaching subscribers’ inboxes soon, so if you would like to sign up to this please do so at www.sarahatherton.org.uk.