PLANS to reduce the number of disabled parking spots at Wrexham Bus Station have been rejected after a voluntary group raised major concerns.

Wrexham Council had applied to bring the number of off-street parking spaces on Trinity Street down from five to four.

Planning officers said the move was put forward to avoid a conflict with the turning circle for buses using the station.

However John Gallanders, chief officer of the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW), spoke at a planning meeting to strongly oppose the proposals.

The spaces were originally introduced in 2016 to make up for the loss of disabled parking at Wrexham Library, because of the construction of new police cells.

Mr Gallanders said: “It is extremely disappointing that I am sitting here again today following the campaign we ran to establish spaces allocated during the removal of eight disabled spaces on Rhosddu Road to make way for the new police station.

“The condition attached to the planning application submitted by the Police and Crime Commissioner was accepted in good faith as being a compromise that still enabled car parking access for shop mobility users.

“There is evidence from our own observations that there are two key issues that on occasions cause an obstruction, neither of which are to do with the layout or the allocation of the designated car parking.

“Buses are actually passing a No Entry sign to lay up in an area that is not designated for this purpose as identified in the original planning permission for the bus station.

“It is our submission that the removal of another car parking space is detrimental to the users of shop mobility or others with a disability.”

In a report, the authority’s head of planning has recommended the proposals to reduce the spaces for approval. Lawrence Isted said he was satisfied there were safety concerns for buses.

However, council leader Mark Pritchard also criticised the move, along with the lack of information in the report.

He said: “We must protect the blue badge parking areas within this county for obvious reasons.

“I think the more blue badge parking we have in close proximity of the town, the better for everyone.

“The issue here is unauthorised parking by the bus operators.

“If they are doing something wrong we should manage them.

“We should not take an alternative route to remove a parking space just to try and appease them.”

Planning committee members unanimously voted to reject the authority’s proposals.