Problems on the estate have reduced over the last two years

It is exactly two years since two nights of race disturbances broke out on the town's Caia Park estate.

Wrexham Council's executive board has been told measures to improve problems there have been approved.

It also agreed to take more steps to help protect the growing number of migrant workers arriving in the town to find work.

Council leader Aled Roberts said the issue of migrant workers travelling to Wrexham to find work had only really emerged in the last nine months, since the new member states were admitted to the EU.

But social cohesion was now one of the council's key priorities and Mr Roberts said there was no mechanism to calculate just how many migrant workers were coming to Wrexham.

Community officer

But numbers in their thousands, particularly from Portugal and Poland, were going to the town and being offered work - mainly on the Wrexham Industrial Estate - because of the 1.6% unemployment rate.

On Tuesday, councillors agreed to give �34,000 to help fund the wages and accommodation of a community cohesion officer who will be employed by Wrexham Asylum Seekers and Refugees group.

They also agreed that information must be made available on health and other issues and the problems of migrant workers living in sub-standard private accommodation is addressed, he said.

The council will be seeking extra money from the Welsh Assembly Government to help migrant workers' children with language skills.

In all, councillors came away with 36 action points to help support the immigrants.

The violence two years ago centred on the estate's pub

"We have to ensure that these people are able to have a peaceful life within Wrexham and that there are no problems that arise within different race groups," he said.

Two years ago, police officers in riot gear were called to deal with the Caia Park disturbances at the Red Dragon pub, involving locals and members of the Iraqi Kurd refugee community.

Fifty-one people later appeared in court and received sentences totalling over 80 years.

But Mr Roberts said problems around refugees and asylum seekers were now declining although Wrexham, in common with other areas, had seen an increase in hate crimes in the last two to three years.

Nigel Davies, deputy chief officer of community group the Caia Park partnership, said the migrant workers from such countries as Poland and the Czech Republic were coming on to the estate and they were working with them on immigration.

He said they could have had a problem in the past, but now the outlook was positive and they were working with the newcomers "so that they integrate into our culture".