'I am so pleased that Wrexham’s bid has been short-listed '

MP for Wrexham

In the past week, I have met with UK Government Ministers to promote the Levelling Up Agenda and to put Wrexham even further on the map. Firstly, I met with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Nadine Dorries, to talk about Wrexham’s City of Culture 2025 bid. Following this, I am so pleased that Wrexham’s bid has been short-listed within the final four. As I said to the Secretary of State last week, our community has a proud heritage, community-spirit and culture, making it an excellent candidate for City of Culture 2025 and I look forward to seeing the bid progress! Well done to all those involved so far.

I also met with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke, to talk about Wrexham’s Levelling Up Fund bid and how the UK Government will support our town with investment and jobs. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has already announced that it will be bringing more jobs to Wrexham and I wanted to make sure that the Government recognised the importance of further investment in our town.

As such, I was pleased to be able to explain the Chief Secretary to the Treasury why Wrexham’s upcoming Levelling Up Fund bid, which will revolve around the Wrexham AFC site and the proposed ‘Wrexham Gateway’ should receive funding in the next round of bidding. Wrexham Council received £13 million in the last round of during, announced in October, alongside £219,000 from the Community Renewal Fund and over half a million of the ‘Safer Streets’ project. All of this funding is very welcome, but I impressed upon the Minister the importance of the UK Government going one step further by funding the Gateway project too. The Gateway project has the potential to create a new, welcoming, entrance to Wrexham, whilst bringing in further private investment. All of this will make our town an even better and more prosperous place!

I also held my first business networking event last week, which Moneypenny kindly hosted. This was an important opportunity to meet business leaders from across Wrexham to hear about the current economic situation, to hear about some of the many success stories and to field questions about how I, as the MP for Wrexham, can continue to support our local businesses and economy. It was also a brilliant chance for us all to discuss how the present opportunities across Wrexham – from the City of Culture bid, the Levelling Up fund and growing export prospects, to name a few – can be harnessed by our businesses.

I would also like to say thank you to Moneypenny and their CEO, Joanna Swash, for hosting the event and for providing a unique but significant insight during the proceedings. Joanna has recently been appointed to the Prime Minister’s new Business Council. The Council will give business leaders across the UK the opportunity to feed into UK Government business and economic policy, giving our town another voice at the table. Given this recent appointment, Joanna’s support to all businesses in attendance was welcomed. Indeed, I was also very grateful for the excellent turn out and to be able to meet so many people (in person!) after so long online.

Finally, as always, my healthcare campaign continues so if you would like to send a message to the Welsh Government that healthcare needs improving, please do so on my website: https://www.sarahatherton.org.uk/health-care-wrexham.

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.