Since 2015, more than £70 million has been invested through the Community Facilities Programme, supporting almost 500 projects across Wales. The funding has helped community-led organisations, including charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises, improve local facilities, restore historic buildings and create welcoming, practical spaces for everyday use.
This week, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice visited two projects in the Wrexham area supported by the programme.
Plas Madoc Leisure Centre in Acrefair received £500,000 in 2016-17 and a further £250,000 in 2021-22. When the centre closed in 2014, local residents formed Splash Community Trust to bring it back into community ownership. Today, it operates as a busy community hub offering swimming, fitness classes, GP referral schemes, cardiac rehabilitation, hub services which includes Wrexham Foodbank and Citizens Advice and a community café. What was once at risk of being lost now supports people of all ages to stay active and connected.
Stella Matthews Chair of Splash Community Trust said: “Keeping Plas Madoc open mattered to local people because it’s more than a leisure centre. It’s where children learn to swim, where people rebuild their health, access vital doorstep services and where neighbours meet. The Welsh Government’s support gave us the stability to plan ahead and grow what we offer. We thank the Welsh Government for their continued support.”
Brymbo Heritage Trust has received £300,000 towards restoring The Machine Shop at a former ironworks site. The building is central to plans to transform the site into a community hub that restores the lost connections in the community and a visitor attraction that tells an incredible 300-million-year story from the coal measures and fossilised forest to the industrial heritage of the iron and steelworks of Brymbo. When it opens later this year, the restored space will include a coffeehouse, retail area, function rooms, gallery, a volunteer hub and education opportunities, as well as five buildings that tell the industrial, natural and social history of the area.
Nicola Eaton Sawford from Brymbo Heritage Trust said: “This is about giving Brymbo’s story a future, as well as preserving its past. Throughout history this extraordinary site in Wrexham has reinvented and innovated and this is the latesst transformation. The funding has helped us turn years of planning into something real that people will soon be able to use and enjoy.”
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, said: “For ten years, this programme has supported communities across Wales, helping to keep valued buildings open, breathing new life into empty spaces, and giving local groups the means to turn plans into reality.
“Visiting Plas Madoc and Brymbo this week, and projects from Gwynedd to Gwent over recent months, I have seen first-hand what happens when local passion and determination are backed by real investment. People create something extraordinary, and I am proud that the Welsh Government has stood alongside almost 500 communities on that journey.”
