DISAPPOINTMENT has been expressed after plans for the demolition of two Wrexham community centres were submitted.

Wrexham Council has received a planning application requesting prior notification for the proposed demolition of a community centre in Bridge Road South, Pentre Maelor.

A further application requests prior notification for the proposed demolition of A community centre and sports pavilion in Bersham Road, New Broughton.

According to the applications, submitted by Stephen Bayley of the council's housing and economy department, the buildings are redundant.

The demolitions are required to "mitigate the risk of vandalism and fire," the applications add adds.

November is the expected start date for both.

New Broughton councillor T Alan Edwards told the Leader of his disappointment over the situation with the Bersham Road site.

He explained: "I'm gutted to see it go. I was an original member of the community centre when it started in about 1980.

"We had allsorts of things on there - dances, bingo and we ran a youth centre there for years.

"The council decided they weren't going to fund community centres any longer and they would have to run themselves about five years ago.

"We tried to set up a committee to run it and to be fair, people from the village did join for a few years to keep it going.

"But it was getting too much. The last user group did indoor bowls, and they stopped in June this year.

"They were having problems with people breaking in there.

"[Wrexham] Council wanted Broughton Community council to take over the building - because the community council owns the land but not the building.

"But it would have needed a lot of work - you'd have been talking about £80,000

"And the main problem was that we just couldn't get a committee to run it."

Cllr Edwards said he has received calls from members of the public who have concerns the land could be used for housing.

But he told the Leader he wanted to reassure residents that would not happen, adding: "It is not Wrexham Council's land - it is community council land, so there is no way it's going to have houses built on it."