A Rhyl councillor claims £19m of UK Government Levelling-Up Funds is being wasted – claiming new green spaces planned for the town centre “will attract drug users and undesirables”.

At a cabinet meeting this week, councillors agreed to accept £19,973,282 as part of the UK Government’s Levelling-Up fund for Rhyl.

Councillors heard how the funds are intended to support investment in improving everyday life, which includes regenerating ex-industrial areas, deprived towns, and coastal communities.

The council intends to spend the money on “gateway” plans improving links between the seafront and town centre as well as Rhyl’s public realm areas.

This will include “active travel” by widening paths, improving lighting, and providing cycle parking as well as green infrastructure and green spaces.

One of the new green spaces planned, yet to go out to public consultation, will replace the yet-to-be demolished former Williams Roberts Building/Games Exchange opposite the Odeon Bingo near the High Street.

But Rhyl councillor Brian Jones, who has already described the plans as “drawn on a fag packet” at a cabinet meeting, says the council is wasting money and believes the plans could even make the town worse.

“The former Williams Roberts Building/Games Exchange opposite the Odeon Bingo, that building is still there, but approximately two years ago, they knocked the building down behind it and adjacent to it,” said Cllr Jones.

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“They said they did a high-level survey report on it and then took out the compulsory demolition order.

“We need things in Rhyl that are going to generate footfall whether that is tourism or getting office blocks somewhere near the town centre.

“Spending £13m on greening, pretty flag stones, it’s not going to solve all that.

“We need to do things that will bring in tourism, regenerate the place.

“This is so basic, but a free paddling pool would do more good for the footfall of the High Street than all this £13m they are going to spend.”

He added: “It is wasting money. I’m born and bred in Rhyl.

“It’s in my heart. I want this to be successful, but if you don’t consult with people… if you and me went down to the bingo hall tomorrow or the coffee shop and asked them, do you know they are going to be demolishing these buildings across the road and turning it into a green space with benches on and pretty trees?

“They (the business owners) won’t have a clue.

“They don’t know. I’ve told them (the cabinet) behind closed doors. It will attract undesirables. That’s what the other green spaces in the town attract. Go behind the town hall any morning of the week. There are people doing drugs. The police know it.

“The police have raised concerns.

“Who is going to sit in a green space across the road from the bingo, realistically? You’ve got a rat-run of alleyways there, and you’ll just attract more of what we have got.”

Cllr Jones says he’d rather see the money spent on CCTV cameras than the aesthetic improvements planned.

“I was going on about this five years ago. Before you spend any money in Rhyl, there is one thing you need, and it’s not Brian Jones coming up with this,” he said.

“I said then to the-then [chief] constable of North Wales, if you had an open cheque book, what is the one thing you’d do in Rhyl?"

“His answer was put in a state-of-the-art CCTV system like they have got in Conwy, monitor every minute of the day, and then you start creating an ambience of a safe place.”

Denbighshire County Council were contacted for a comment.