CAMPAIGNERS who threatened to boycott a key meeting over a plan for Wrexham to co-operate more closely with its English neighbours have decided they will go along after all.
Members of the People’s Council for North Wales (PCNW) spent six months gathering more than 15,000 signatures for their petition demanding the region’s withdrawal from the West Cheshire/North East Wales Sub-Regional Strategy.
Already supported by a number of local councils including Wrexham, the strategy calls for closer cross-border ties with Cheshire on major planning and economic issues.
But PCNW is bitterly opposed to the strategy, branding it “ill thought-out, extremely damaging and subversive”.
The petition organised by the group is now being considered by the Assembly’s petitions committee whose members will meet in public at Glyndwr University next Monday morning to discuss it.
PCNW at first welcomed the chance to have a proper say on the plan. But the group then learned that evidence will also be taken from the Mersey Dee Alliance, the grouping which supports the plan.
Earlier this week, PCNW leader Pol Wong said members were so angry about this they were considering boycotting the meeting in protest.
But at their own meeting on Tuesday night, PCNW members voted to attend the meeting after all.
Mr Wong said: “The fact that North East Wales is intent on building at least 20,000 houses aimed at attracting inward migration from Cheshire and Merseyside without any concerns about the increased pressure on our quality of life in North Wales is incredible.”
The committee’s session begins at 9.30am on Monday in the university’s Catrin Finch Centre, with members of the public invited to attend.
To book a seat call the Assembly booking line on 0845 010 5500 or email assembly.booking@assembly wales.org