Wrexham doesn’t ‘deserve to be a city’ according to new survey
Wrexham does not “deserve” to be a city, according to a newly-published survey.
An official consultation by Wrexham Council on the subject has revealed that 61% of respondents felt this way.
The results were published ahead of a extraordinary meeting of the full council where councillors will get the chance to axe Wrexham’s city status bid.
An officer analysis of the survey results suggested that “there is an underlying sense that people lack confidence in their town”.
According to the survey 17% felt quite strongly that Wrexham deserves to be a city; and 6% felt quite strongly.
However 61% felt “not at all”, when asked if they believed Wrexham deserved to be a city and 11% felt not very; while 5% were of neutral opinion. 458 people took part.
The officer analysis of the survey results said: “The headline conclusion to draw from the comments is that people are concerned with the town centre – comments significantly outweighed any other individual theme and provided some very strong evidence for the ‘place making’ strategy and the need as is already being done to put in place a clear plan for investment with a range of projects that will benefit the town centre.
“People appear to link the ‘deserve to be a city’ question with ‘we better sort out our problems first’ narrative and there is an underlying sense that people lack confidence in their town.
“People have not connected the opportunities around city status with an opportunity to turn around the perception/improving and moving Wrexham County Borough forward which is what the socio economic report identified as the real opportunity of city status.
“City status allied to a clear vision and plans for economic regeneration potentially provides the platform for addressing people’s concerns.”
‘Plaid Cymru’
The extraordinary general meeting has been called after the Plaid Cymru group on Wrexham Council submitted a request to the Mayor for one to be held.
A total of 52 councillors will get to discuss and vote on a motion that reads: “This council does not support a bid for city status”.
Wrexham Council revealed back in July that it was considering entering a competition for UK towns to upgrade their status as part of plans to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next year.
Senior councillors have argued Wrexham has a strong case as the largest town in the north, despite missing out on city status in 2000, 2002 and 2012.
However the Plaid Cymru group on the council have questioned whether is a good use of time and of public money.
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Pure loser talk. Being a city would bring investment into Wrexham and the surrounding area, but you stay the same and allow Chester to take your business and opportunities and be in a better position than you for reasons. Is this why we still aren’t a independent country yet because we have losers who want to stay as losers instead of pulling their pants up like a big boy?
If St Asaph and Bangor can be cities, then why can’t much larger Wrexham?
Serious salt from GW “The Saes” Atkinson 🤣 not keen on democracy, are you?
It’s Wrecsam – as you should already know, we don’t have an X and just borrow one on special occasions.
We haven’t lost confidence in our town we have lost confidence in our Council.
Pretty sad that the people of Wrecsam have so little faith in their would-be city. And if we take their apathetic attitude literally. Why bother having a football club. Just support Man United or Liverpool like most do and give your support and money to English football clubs. See it’s easy to be a quitter, harder to be a winner. Wrecsam FC has been in the doldrums for years. And when two Hollywood A-listers came knocking gave a buzz to the town again and hope that investment would bring back the glory days to Wales oldest football club. City status… Read more »
As it is the largest urban area in north and mid Wales, I think city status would be a great idea. It could be a focus area for the people rather than Chester, Liverpool, Shrewsbury and Manchester. However, there would need to be investment in public transport links as at the moment links between Wrecsam and other parts of north and Wales are quite poor. This could include buses between towns / cities like Bangor to Wrecsam; Blaenau Ffestiniog and Bala to Wrecsam: Llandudno to Wrecsam calling at Llanrwst, Corwen: Rhyl to Wrecsam calling at Denbigh, Ruthin; Caergybi to Wrecsam… Read more »
The whole concept of “city status” is ludicrous. What’s wrong with allocating resources & investment according measurable criteria?
Wrecsam has the finest piece of Gothic archiecture in Cymru, as well as one of the oldest football clubs in the world, along with Erddig, a new university, and Pontcysyllte. But there is little else to justify making it a city.
Any Welsh money that needs to be invested in the town could go ahead irrespective of whether it’s a town or a city. This is just bread and circuses.
“According to the survey 17% felt quite strongly that Wrexham deserves to be a city; and 6% felt quite strongly.”
Is it 17% or 6%…?
Also the article is a 3-minute read or it takes 3 minutes to read, but it’s not a “3 minutes read”. Please get this fixed.