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A local community group is using funding seized from criminals to create a wonderful and welcoming entrance to North-East Wales’ largest hospital. Wrexham Community Gardeners, which started in September 2023 and brings together over 25 volunteers aged from 10 to 70, was one of the recent winners of Your Community, Your Choice funding for their ‘First Impressions’ project at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
Your Community, Your Choice helps support grass-roots projects across North Wales and is supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT), the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, and North Wales Police. The funding for Your Community, Your Choice comes partly from money seized by the courts through the Proceeds of Crime Act, with the rest coming from the Police and Crime Commissioner.
Wrexham Community Gardeners’ purpose is to improve and maintain the courtyards and other green spaces at Wrexham Maelor Hospital for the benefit of all patients, staff and visitors. The particular project that received funding, ‘First Impressions’, aims to renovate and plant the green areas around the three principle entrances to the hospital – the Main Entrance, Emergency Department Entrance and Entrance B. After speaking with the hospital estates department, hospital security and managers, these areas were identified as needing improvement to create a better first impression and welcome to the site, encouraging a calmer and more attractive arrival for all.
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Andy Dunbobbin visited the group on 12 March accompanied by local PCSO Gethin Thomas from North Wales Police to see the project underway and to hear more about the group’s successes and determination to maintain and improve the hospital site. While there, the PCC met Group Chair Ruth Tesdale, fellow volunteers and representatives from the hospital.
Ruth Tesdale, Chair, Wrexham Community Gardeners said: “Gardens and gardening benefit health, and through collaboration with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wrexham Community Gardeners are working to create wellbeing and therapeutic gardens at Wrexham Maelor Hospital to benefit patients and staff.
“Using the funding generously donated by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, PACT and North Wales Police, we are enhancing the entrances with gardens to lift the spirits of everyone arriving. We feel privileged to have this opportunity to help a hospital that touches lives and holds a special place in the hearts of everyone in the community.”
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Andy Dunbobbin said: “A crucial part of my plan for policing and fighting crime in North Wales is supporting communities and the group of volunteer gardeners at Wrexham Maelor Hospital are community spirit personified.
“It was a pleasure to visit them and to learn about their hard work to create a more attractive welcome for everyone visiting, working, or being treated at the hospital.”
PACT Chairman Ashley Rogers commented: “Many people visiting hospital may be nervous, upset or unwell and it is important that first impressions help to put them at ease and make their arrival as welcoming as possible. That is why projects like this one at Wrexham Maelor Hospital are so important. It is also why at PACT we are delighted to be able to support the group and, in turn, support everyone with a connection to a place that is at the heart of the local community.”
North Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Chris Allsop said: “North Wales Police is delighted to help support this project through Your Community, Your Choice funding. Places that are looked after and cared for help to create a wider feeling of wellbeing in the community and encourage others to treat spaces with respect and reduce anti-social behaviour. Wrexham Community Gardeners also help bring together members from across a range of ages and backgrounds. This helps forge the links and shared experiences that make our community even stronger.”
Over the eleven years since Your Community, Your Choice started, almost £600,000 has been awarded to nearly 200 projects working to reduce crime in their neighbourhoods and also to support the priorities in the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan.
To learn more about PACT visit: www.pactnorthwales.co.uk
To find out more information about Wrexham Community Gardeners, visit: https://www.wrexhamcommunitygardeners.org