CABLE cars could come to Cefn Mawr as part of a multi-million pound plan to transform the area and boost tourism.
The Plas Kynaston Canal Group has announced plans for the area which it is hoped could eventually create about 200 jobs.
The group wants to reinstate the Plas Kynaston canal with a 60-berth marina in Cefn Mawr but the earliest this can happen is 2018.
“We can’t wait,” said campaign organiser David Metcalfe.
“The village is going to die on its feet if we don’t do something now.”
The group is therefore proposing a “bridging package” to kick-start tourism in the area.
Phase one of the scheme in 2012 would see an Alpine-style tourist information centre built on the car park at Weigh Bridge Gate, Queens Street and a tree-lined walk to the canal.
Phase two in 2013 would see a cable car system between the car park and Crane Street in Cefn Mawr, about 1,000 ft-long and 130ft-high, with an estimated cost of £3million.
The group hopes Wrexham Council will redirect traffic to the council-owned car park from the A539 and beyond with road signs.
“We won’t be taking out loans for the cable car project if the critical mass of tourists isn’t there. It will only appear if phase one goes ahead.
“We need to channel people into the car park in time for next year’s season,” Mr Metcalfe said.
An estimated 200,000 people visit world heritage site the Pontcysyllte aqueduct and canal, each year.
But Mr Metcalfe said: “Cefn Mawr and the surrounding villages see far less than one per cent of this tourist count despite the £3.5 million already spent on the villages. The reason for this is simple.
“The villages have been isolated from the Inland Waterway network by the chemical works since the Second World War.”
With much of the Flexsys chemical works now closed, an opportunity to link Cefn Mawr to the aqueduct is now a reality, he added.
“If we play this right, 200,000 people is enough to make it work. This place is a gold mine,” he said.
A host of businesses and organisations are already involved with the group, including Banyon Property Services and Timby Contruction, but the group is calling on more investors to get on board.
The group also hopes to tap into various funding streams to bring the project to fruition.
Cefn Mawr councillor Warren Coleman OBE said he was fully supportive of the groups plans.
“Cefn, instead of lying down and dying, is doing something about it,” he said.
“At the moment I think both the group and the council are aware of each other’s plans and there is a certain amount of overlap between them.”
The group is campaigning to have its plans incorporated in to Wrexham Council’s local development plan (LDP). A public hearing on the LDP by Planning Inspectorate Wales will start on January 25, 2012.
The Plas Kynaston Canal group also hopes to submit its planning application for phase one in January.