Wrexham Community Buildings Forum
held in Hightown Resource Centre at 5.30pm on 3rdJune2014
Present: / Gary Sage (Chair) / Marchwiel Community Centre / GSSteve Tilston / Bwlchgwyn / ST
Jerry Wellen / Bwlchgwyn / TW
Bryn Jones / Esclusham Community Council (Clerk) / BJ
Shaun Jones / Garth &N Trevor / GJ
Dilwen Roberts / Garth & Trevor / DR
Vy Cochoran / Wales & West & Hightown Resource Centre / VC
Libby Price / Manager - Hightown Resource Centre / LP
Craig Sparrow / Wales & West Housing Association / CS
Jane Janaway / Wales & West Housing Association / JJ
\ / Roy Jones / Bangor-on-Dee Community Centre / RJ
Cllr Graham Jones / Coedpoeth Community Centre / GJ
Tracy Day / Church of Nazarene / TD
John Gallanders / Chief Officer AVOW / JO
Victoria Westaway / AVOW 3rd Sector Doctor / VW
Rafat Arshad-Roberts / AVOW Community Buildings Development Officer / RAR
Marion Kelsall / Minutes Secretary / MK
Apologies / Beryl Blackmore / Marford CC
Andy Powick / Bangor-on-Dee
Sue Kelly / Gresford
Margaret Heaton / Gresford Trust
Linda & Derek Roberts / Kenyon Hall Committee
Peter Andrews / Kenyon Hall Committee
Sam Hughes / Tanyfron CC
Deborah Paul / Whitewell Parish Rooms
Ian Simon / GardenVillage & District Community Association
Vervaine Jones / Bradley CC
Lydia Bagnal / CaiaPark
Kate Harcus / B2C
1 / Welcome and introductions
Gary Sage, Chair, thanked all for attending and thanked VC for inviting the group to Hightown Resource Centre for the meeting. Apologies noted above were received.GS invited all present to give a brief outline of their organisation and there needs and interest.
2 / Minutes of last meeting 4th March 2014
Minutes of last meeting were read and agreed as correct.
3 / Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
4 / Speaker – Staff of Wales & West Housing Association (W&W)
VyCochran welcomed all to the Centre and introduced Craig Sparrow, W&W’s Development Manager for North Wales.
Craig Sparrow– Development Officer for W&W began by explaining the background to the building of the Hightown Resource Centre beginning with the negotiations of buying land from WCBC on the site where previous flats and houses had been demolished. The land price was reasonable because an agreement was made that W&W would .design the building to suit the locality and use as much as 80% locally-sourced material. W&W always try to use local labour and offer apprenticeships to local youngsters where ever possible and were able to do this during the build.
It was decided to add a extra floor above the Health Centre (rented by Betsi Cadwaladr to keep it in the area) and most of the floor space would also be rented by the Health Centre (30 yr lease) and W&W would use some for ‘hot desking’ for visiting staff.
Rates of hire for rooms were set by District Valuer
W&W are currently building 69 units in the Wrexham area but are always looking to find land for use as and when necessary.
Jane Janaway– PR Officer for W&W welcomed all to the Centre which is a state of art community resource centre in the heart of Wrexham as it is available to the wider Wrexham Community. The Main Hall seats up to 100 people, the smaller hall can be divided into two areas, one seating 25 and the other 12. The building can be used by previous users, W&W residents, friends and relatives, the wider Wrexham Community, Community groups eg: schools, religious groups, local businesses etc.
There is well equipped kitchen and free Wi-Fi. It is affordable for family parties, getting fit, having fun activities, events, meetings, joining the existing activities. For information visit w
Libby Price: Centre Manager. Hightown Community Centre has been marketed as the heart of the Community through the use of flyers, posters, Heart Radio Campaign, Outdoor Banners, Bus Shelter Ads, Face-book Page (best results) Media Releases, News Ads, Websiteand Twitter. The Centre was opened by Leslie Griffiths AM and an excellent Fun Day was held the following day 15/2/14 with the Mayor of Wrexham in attendance.
LP passed around details of those using the Centre on a regular basis including dance classes (Capoeira, Zumba and Line dancing), Story and Rhyme group, parent and craft groups, Bingo, parties etc. The costs of the rooms vary from £8 to £15 per hour. It was stated that Slimming World using a room on Saturday mornings was a source of income for 52 weeks of the year.
It was hoped that as well as the opening event, many more events would follow including business events, Easter disco, over 50’s events, rummage sales and multi-cultural events for the summer months
The use of Wi-fi was discussed and JOG advised those present to contact RAR for information link.
5 / Speaker – Third Sector Doctor Development Manager – Victoria Westaway
Victoria Westaway explained that her new project as a 3rd sector doctor was a 3 year lottery funded project for Wrexham and Flintshire with a staff of two, herself and a yet to be appointed finance officer. The ethos of the project was to tackle problems and try to resolve them before hitting crisis point. Community groups would receive a ‘health check’ to establish potential areas for development eg; staffing, policies and procedures, funding, PQASSO, legal and charity frameworks. It will be an outreach service working with groups to provide support in governance issues that committees are unsure about, troubleshooting service with networking opportunities and training sessions enabling groups to become more sustainable with due diligence.
A Community Conference will take place on 1st July 2014 in the Memorial Hall, Wrexham from 9.15am – 3pm where workshops and one-to-one advisory sessions will be held. For further details contact RAR in AVOW on 01978 312556 or contact VW on .
6 / Information Share/Any Other Business
RAR reminded all present that she needs correct email addresses, telephone numbers, new personnel details to be placed on AVOW’s website and added a plea for all to inform anyone they knew who did not know about the forum but could use it that they would be welcome at all meetings. JOG informed that this was well worth the effort as the AVOW website had a regular 6000 visits which including many looking to hire rooms, make use of other facilities etc.
JW stated that an on line calendar had different levels of access and was free to use at the moment, it was noted that Gresford Trust had a seamless system in place (contact Margaret Heaton via eaton for information).
RAR: training for Trustees: Roles and Responsibilities: AVOW is able to offer this training for 8/10 people. Also Mental Health, First Aid, Volunteer training (recruiting/retaining), Policies and Procedures etc. Community related training.
Rafat)JOG recently discovered that 34 organisations in North Wales with a flat roof on their building were keeping bees, whose honey was sold to cafes and for holistic therapies. Thinking outside the box. He reminded those present that AVOW’s Annual Volunteer Day would take place on the following Saturday7th June, plenty of opportunity for networking, a very busy day. The open door policy of AVOW means that there is no need to re-invent the wheel as there are templates of information sheets available at any time- Rafat happy to forward if requested.
Bio mass energy: Wrexham Golf Club is in process of testing this out, results to follow. CS mentioned that, although it was too late this year (usually held in May), the yearly Green Build Conference held in Manchester is good to visit for everything including accessing grants. It was suggested that JOG arrange a visit next year.
LED lighting: Coedpoeth representative to talk about this a future meeting in order to help others not to make the same mistakes as they had. Made. Marchwiel heating bills had been reduced by 50%. JW proposed that an energy specific forum meeting be held in the near future, this was accepted and was to be a general overview ie no salesmen with up to date information and neutral point of view.
GJ: concerned that new issue of use of children’s playgrounds being devolved to Community Councils, ie cost of upkeep and refurbishment no longer to be controlled by WCBC. JOG 7 RAR to discuss and present at future meeting.
8 / Date of next meeting
The next meeting will be Tuesday 21stOctober 2014 at 2.30 pm at Marchwiel Village Hall
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