PLAS Madoc Leisure Centre has been highlighted as a true Wrexham community success story, as a 99 year lease has been agreed for the building.

Wrexham Council’s Executive Board has agreed to the request from the Splash Community Trust which runs the centre to replace the current lease which only had 12 years to run.

The new lease will be on similar terms and conditions, allowing the trust to apply for major grants for which a 25 year-lease is a requirement, with the old one running only until November 2034.

Amid huge public protest, the Acrefair based leisure centre was closed for more than six months in 2014 when it was a victim to council cuts. But it was reopened later that year after the Splash Community Trust formed to take it on.

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Cllr Hugh Jones (Con), lead member for the Environment praised the trust for what it has achieved since.

He said: “Some of us were concerned about the size of the task the trust was taking on.

“I’d just like to pay tribute to the work done over the years, the changes to the building and the facilities. It has been really first class.”

The council’s former lead member for finance who took the decision to close the centre eight years ago, Wynnstay Cllr Malcolm King (Lab), spoke at the Executive Board meeting to say its success since proved there should be more confidence in communities taking on facilities.

He said: “It was an agonising decision because I had advice from all sides about whether it was feasible or not for the council to carry on running it financially because it was making a huge loss.

“I took the private decision to that it was better to close because it would give it a chance to become viable in the voluntary community sector and I think that has proved right.”

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Cllr King said Plas Madoc's success should be used inspiration for community asset transfers, adding that in the early days of being trust-run, he felt the council “did not want it to work” because if it did so it would have proved the authority wrong.

Chairing this section of the meeting, the council’s deputy leader Cllr Dave Bithell (Ind group leader) said this was not the time to dwell on the history, as members unanimously voted to grant the lease.

Cllr Bithell added: “Hopefully the lessons have been learned about community asset transfers.”

The report presented to the executive board outlined how pre-Covid the centre was going from strength to strength, with figures in the 2019 accounts showing “a profitable business which should therefore be viable going forward”.

The Council’s Free Swim programme is being delivered at Plas Madoc, and the National Exercise on Referral Scheme (NERS) also sees up to 200 people a year referred to the centre.

Wrexham Council’s Chief Officer Housing will now liaise with Splash Community Trust to ensure that it concurrently surrenders the lease dated November 28, 2014, and negotiate and conclude the terms and conditions for the replacement lease.