WREXHAM Council has promised that the city centre will be an 'entertaining and inclusive' place for all to enjoy in the new year as it reflects on a busy 2022.

The city has enjoyed a number of big events this year, from the return of St David's Day celebrations post-covid to the World Cup fanzones it hosted towards the end of the year.

Now, council members are planning ahead for 2023 and what the future holds for the town which became a city this year.

Reflecting on 2022, Councillor Nigel Williams, lead member for economy said: “The covid pandemic meant that we started 2022 with tricky trading conditions as there were still restrictions in place.

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“As an organisation we have continued to support and assist businesses where we can. “This has included specific grants to assist with trading during the COVID period, grants and loan support for building refurbishment or repurposing, business advice through the Council’s Business Support Team and Destination Management function.

“St David’s Day this year was the first large town (as it was) centre event that we had had for two years and it was great to see so many people in attendance.

“Competing in the City of Culture competition, and finishing runner up to Bradford we raised the profile of Wrexham further both nationally and internationally.

“This also generated new relationships whilst strengthening existing ones with businesses and organisations united around our unique culture.

”We have already stated that we intend to compete to become City of Culture for 2029 and will use this as a focus point to develop our cultural offering.

“In May it was announced that as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee that Wrexham would officially become a city, with the status officially recognised on September 1 of this year.

“To coincide with becoming the seventh City in Wales a busy schedule of events were planned for every Saturday in September, encouraging people to visit the city centre.

“As part of the World Cup celebrations we also saw the first ‘fanzones’ in Wrexham so we could celebrate together Wales reaching the World Cup Finals, this also provided a pre-Christmas trading boost to many of the pubs and bars that form part of our ‘nigh time’ economy."

The Leader:

PIC: Wrexham city centre.

Looking to the future, Cllr Williams added: "Looking forward to 2023 we have further ongoing projects such as the Gateway Project, the refurbishment of the General and Butchers markets and the exciting Welsh Football Museum development, as well as private investment in the City Centre such as the exciting Chapter Court development around Queens Square.

“The council will be commencing public engagement in January 2023 in relation to a new Placemaking Plan for Wrexham, which aims to raise the ambition further and deliver the vision Wrexham will fully capture the benefits of its city status to create a place of regional and national significance.

 “Our city centre will be playful, sociable, entertaining and inclusive to all who live, work, visit, and invest. This will include development of a SMART Towns project that aims to support local consumers, visitors and businesses through the sharing of data that can help improve decision making and awareness of opportunities within Wrexham.”