Graham Ellis - my blog
Visioning Melksham - next 1, 5, 15 years
| Update 5 hour meting of 11 councillors which will give you some idea of just how much some of us had to say. Being written up and checked around - confidence and not yet signed off, so please forgive my silence. A just 1 of 11, please expect to see some of the spirit of my words in the outcome rather than gobbs of my text. |
A big "thank you" to those of you who have got back with me on visioning for Melksham Town Council, and the meeting we have today (19.5.2024) on the topic. A very curious meeting - organised by officers, with a free lunch, and on a Sunday. To my knoweldge, officers not attending, not broadcast or recorded, no agenda and not being held under the auspices of any committee or working group. The invite says we will set a vision, and one of our number has usefully circulated visions from neighbouring towns as examples. And yet this meeting is unconstitutional, called by the personell committee at a short-notice none-public meeting at which it was not on the agenda, and happening the day before we appoint a new mayor who, one might reasonably expect, would wish to set his / her own vision.
I have an uneasy feeling that someone's going to turn up with a vision document and look to press it through - I hope I am wrong, a I have seen this happen on a number of occasions while on the council and I have regretted being bounced / bullied into accepting something that sounds sensible but in the light of day is not the best we could have done. I am nervous about today.
That said, we are overdue - three years overdue - for a vision. It has been ludicrous that year after year we have been moving forward - some may say stumbling forward - without a clarity of direction. Each year I have asked our staff team and colleagues what our vision for the future is as we set our budget, and nothing has been forthcoming. And - believe you me - it's very hard to move ahead for Melksham when we don't know where we are going. We had a visioning day in summer 2021 with all staff present to share and inform us, but nothing came of it - another project you may feel was wasted. It's very hard to make correct tactical decisions when you have no strategy
But to repeat - a strategy is overdue and I WILL be going along today to contribute and look to moving us forward. It's in the interest of all councillors who care for Melksham, and / or wish to be re-elected next year, to help set a strategy and to be seen to be driving it forward over the next twelve months.
"So what would YOUR vision be, Graham" you may ask.
Firstly, regular reader will know that I was elected and remain concerned wit three key pillars - Openness, Equality and Environement, and they in my view are foundations. Not quite "nothing changes" but I'm proud to stand by most of what I've suggested over past years, while explaining why a few things have changed based on experience, changes, and public input because I am here to represent the public and not to promote myself, my career, or my political group.
Vision ... as at dawn, 19th May 2024
| Update 5 hour meting of 11 councillors which will give you some idea of just how much some of us had to say. Being written up and checked around - confidence and not yet signed off, so please forgive my silence. A just 1 of 11, please expect to see some of the spirit of my words in the outcome rather than gobbs of my text. |
Management Overview
1. 1. Vision of the operation of the Town Council
* A place which instills in the paid, unpaid (volunteer) and contracted team a natural desire to do their very best for the town, and provides them with the tools and support to do so.
* An organisation which welcomes, supports, informs and develops the Melksham communty of residents across all ages, backgrounds and abiities and businesses
* An organisation which leads by positive example, and is lead by residents signed up to a vision aligned with this document or its successor
2. Vision for ongoing council and other operations
* A Town which provides information and a welcome and leads by example in what it does.
* A Town which takes pragmtic environmental care of its real estate and other activities, looking to repurpose and reuse if possible and if that makes sense.
* A Town which consolidates / networks faciities into broadly combined areas for the benefit of all facilities within an area but at the same time supports some neighbourhood activities such as play areas for younger children
* A town which works "light" itself to support and motivate others with interests within the whole rather than taking on full projects itself.
3. Vision for the future
* A town that looks ahead to remaining and developing as a place that people want to live, work, run businesses, visit and spend leisure time
* A town that is accessible and navigable by all forms (powered and unpoweres, public and private) transport
* A town with a heart - physically and emotionally
* A town that fits / works with others under the super-parish, area, unitary and national frameworks and becomes a beacon for those others and for our residents and businesses
Some (developing) detail.
I am not one to impose my own thoughts totally here - I am one of 15, but this first section relating to people is so important I describe it first and have it more filled in
1. Vision in the operation of the council
* A service run by a happy, professional and stable staff team who are well rewarded and encouraged to learn and develop their careers while they are with us, and who are ambassadors for the town at all times.
* An organisation that takes care of its elected councillors and all of the other volunteers who assist and support its aims in whatever way
* An organisation designed and tuned to minimise conflicts and structured so that the whole team buys into, supports and helps objectives but with a clear, crisp and fair system of resolving any issues that might arise
* An organisation run and supported by a team who consider not only what they are doing, but why they are doing it in a wider context and are encouraged to suggest improvements not only by being provided with a mechanism for doing so, but also with a mechanism through which ideas are positively considered, recorded, credited and where appropriate implemented.
* IT systems which provide appropriate and easy to find correlated data for all - staff, councillors and public, and provide for efficient updates. Accessible services and data for all, including everything from Town events though to old reports that will help inform new work.
* Purchase and service contracts to be placed with and to encourage local businesses and residents where practical and not significantly less competitive than suppliers from further afield, and for bills to be paid within 28 days of presentation.
* Community Organisation Support - in helping with specialist services and in appropriate funding grants - either for one off capital / seeding projects or regular with an annual monitoring cycle. Grants may be financial, meeting room or other.
* A council that partners with other organisations - governmental and otherwise at all appropriate levels and pulls it fair weight and applies fair influence on them and the overall outcomes in that partnership work.
3. In the future quality of life in Melksham
* Developing and maintaining a neighbourhood plan and other local visions. Commenting and encouraging public comment on planning applications and informal opportunities to comment as to how they fit with the neighbourhood plan, the local plan, the NPPF and other local including community aspects of those which effect Melksham Town, including those located close to but outside the parish
* Aiding and informing new, changing an established businesses
* Welcoming newcomer to Melksham and assisting those who have been in Melksham for a while to access and feel welcomed by the councils and other services
2. In the running of specific services
* Parks and outdoor
A Common facilities for all ... to include BMX park, Happy to Chat bench. Neighbourhood play areas for close residents. Quiet space. T en
* Allotments
* Graveyards
* Public buildings and domain
* Halls for Hire
* Public Domain
* Events
* Community Support
* Community Facilities
* Economic Development
* Assets - to be used for the community and businesses
* Co-operative
* Budget and project Schedules
To agree and set a prudent budget and levy a reasonable precent on an annual basis, with use of the Public Works Loan Board for capital not in excess of three times the annual precept in any years with a limit of 5 times the annual precept outstanding at any time
Written / posted at 06:00 on 19th May 2024 and to be subject to revision with tracked changes over coming days.
BBC on small museums
"Nearly everybody knows of Stonehenge, the Tower of London and the Natural History Museum. Each year, Visit England's annual statistics reveal the millions who flock to explore the nation's best-known attractions. But what of the 20 or so at the other end of the list who see fewer than 300 visitors a year?" - see full article at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-68779540An interesting article, highlighting the importance of quality over quantity of visitors, of the surprise of many at the depth and interest of what they find, and the dedication of the volunteer team that keeps them running to a schedule of opening for people coming from far, far away.
Melksham has a long and rich history, with artefacts spread around in storage and a very few on display in our town or in some cases in Devizes and Chippenham. There have been at least three periods when a timed regular opening in various locations has been available, but not currently the case. Wiltshire has a museum support service, which (however) costs money to formally join ... and that brings to the fore the cost of storing, keeping secure, catalogued and preserved all the artefacts and selecting which are to be displayed, kept for potential future examination and display, and let go over future years, and how that process is to be maintained into the medium and log term.
Melksham has or has had a number of benign trusts - the Almshouses, the Rachel Fowler Centre, the Friends Garden over the years, and there are a number of other groups where people quietly dip into their own pockets to keep things going. But there is a strong case here, and people active in looking, at setting something up for the future - not just for "us" but sustainable for when "we" are not in town. A logical option here is to share the local support with (an)other local setup - and logic suggests in co-operation with a service provider in the town such as at the Campus, Blue Pool, Assembly Hall, Town Hall, TIC where there can be people (volunteers or other staff) around to receive guests, space (and don't underestimate how much might be needed) an a natural flow of passing traffic and nearby facilities.
Published Saturday, 18th May 2024
Melksham Town Council - what should we be doing?
I undertand that we (town councillors) have a meeting this Sunday - 19th May - "to highlight the vision of the Council and future projects that need delivering. This will then result in the shape of the council going forward" - that text taken from the public record of the (confidential session) personnel committee held on 30th April which was circulated to all councillors last Thursday and added to the council web site. No agenda has been published for the meeting on Sunday, and it does not appear on the Town Council's diary.A Vision for the town [council] is in my opionion long overdue, and I value input on where you (the public) see action is needed, and what is important. But with the short notice of this meeting, I am dropping back to my survey results of last year where I asked what was IMPORTANT to you, and where you felt ACTION WAS NEEDED. Survey (here) and full report on conculsion of the survey (here) . It is my view that what is important will not have changed very much, whereas we (as a Town Council and community) have moved forward on some of the actions, so that list will have changed as things get ticked off.
Numbers are rankings, and number of votes (out of 70 answers)
Where you felt attention was needed at April 2023 1 29 - Cafe in Park *** 2 27 - Town Toilets * 3 25 - Parking - around schools 4 24 - Speeding and Ratruns 5 23 - CCTV ** 6 22 - Assembly Hall * 7 22 - Bank(s) 8 21 - Parking - in Town * 9 20 - Litter * 10 20 - Better cycle routes 11 18 - Trains * 12 18 - Buses * 13 18 - Museum for Melksham 14 18 - Melksham House <- now "Blue Pool"? * 15 17 - Walking routes and paths 16 17 - Lighting in Park ** 17 16 - Councillors who listen and inform * 18 16 - Affordable Housing 19 16 - Councillors with skill and time * 20 16 - Environment including climate * 21 15 - Canal 22 13 - Nature reserve 23 13 - Employment 24 13 - Play Areas 25 12 - Street Cleaning 26 12 - Carnival * 27 11 - Council Staff who are available * 28 9 - Riverside Site * 29 9 - Neighbourhood Plan * 30 9 - Sensory Garden | The top 30 MOST IMPORTANT things to residents as at April 2023 1 39 - Christmas Lights 2 36 - Cafe in Park 3 36 - Councillors who listen and inform 4 36 - Flowers and Floral 5 35 - Town Toilets 6 34 - Trains 7 34 - Affordable Housing 8 33 - Assembly Hall 9 33 - Parking - in Town 10 33 - Walking routes and paths 11 32 - Litter 12 32 - Street Cleaning 13 31 - Parking - around schools 14 31 - Councillors with skill and time 15 30 - Canal 16 29 - Buses 17 29 - Environment including climate 18 29 - Nature reserve 19 27 - CCTV 20 27 - Better cycle routes 21 27 - Council Staff who are available 22 27 - Riverside Walk 23 25 - Museum for Melksham 24 23 - Melksham House 25 23 - Employment 26 23 - Carnival 27 22 - Riverside Site 28 22 - Neighbourhood Plan 29 21 - Bank(s) 30 21 - Play Areas |
*** - (near) completion progress made in year to April 2024
** - considereable progress made
* - some progress made
Published Tuesday, 14th May 2024
Melksham Station - re-opening anniversary
13th May - the anniversary of the re-opening of Melksham Station in 1985 with a very limited service. In recent years, that has risen from 2 trains each way per day to 9, and passenger journeys up from 3,000 to 75,000 per annum. But that service is still so sparse that many potential passengers don't use it - either they drive or they get lifts - either to other stations or all the way to their destination!A big "Thank you" to GWR, TransWilts, Wiltshire Council, and many others for all the help over the years.
Most stations have "USER Group"s. Melksham didn't until recent years - we had the "Melksham Railway DEVELOPMENT Group" as we didn't have enough users ... but that has changed in recent years and you'll now hear of the "Melksham Transport Users Group". That makes sense - our rail service remains thin, with buses rather than trains providing the most sensible way into Bath, and the only public transport to places like Devizes, Corsham and Lacock.
1985 was a long time ago, and old hands like Gordon Dodge, John Money and Peter Blackburn are no longer with us. Others - so many names - are no longer as active, and the core members are looking forward to the future. Last December, many of us joined together to celebrate 10 years of the improved service, and now we're looking ahead to the next 10 years.
A date in my diary - Wednesday 22nd May 2024, 19:00 for 19:30 at the Bethesda Church Hall just across the square from Trowbridge Station - where at the West Wiltshire Rail Users Group, new chair of TransWilts - Paddy Bradley - will look forward to the Community Rail Partnership's vision and plans for the future. Guests welcome (WWRUG ask guests for £2 to help towards their costs). And the meeting is timed to allow you to catch the last train back to Melksham at around twenty past nine.
The Melksham [Transport/Rail] [Users/Development] Group remaining active members will be meeting soon after 22nd May and looking to consider the future path, working with those other groups and partnering as appropriate. Public transport is about linking places and so it's appropriate for us to work for Melksham but also with the other nearby towns and villages and we'll be so better guided in that in 10 days.
Published Monday, 13th May 2024
Melksham Vision - on a walk into Town
What is going on in Melksham? I wrote myself a list of projects, considerations and potentials - looking with a visitors's view, starting at the Railway Station and walking from there through to the Market Place and Campus. Here they are - just on that walk - in Alphabetic Order.
A3102 improvement plan
Access to north of Melksham
Assembly Hall
Avon Canteen
Avon House
Avon Place
Avon War Memorial
Avonside
Bath Road High Pavement (Forest)
Bath Road High Pavement (South)
Blue Pool - Cinema, Museum, Open Space, Improved Parking
Bus to / from station
Campus
Canal at Bridge
Customer Service Point at Station
George Inn block
Housing, business and parkland
Improved train service
Information Panels
Labour Club
Level walkway when bypass open
Market Place events
Melksham House / SEMH school
More tourists for Melksham
National Westminster and HSBC Bank buildings
Old Llyods Bank buiding
Outside Cafe at Campus
Pedestrianiase High Street
Queen Marys Garden
Real Time Information in Bus Stops
Redecorated Subway
Reverse direction of traffic in back of Market Place
Road Crossing at Avonside
Shop Frontages
The Bell High Pavement
The Unicorn
Town Hall Opening Hours and services
Town Centre Master Plan
Union Street traffic
Walk to church up Place Road and gate opening
Wishing Well in Market Place
Some other major projects of town interest off that path.
Conigre Mead Nature Reserve
East of Melksham Community Hall
Hazelwood Road Pay Area
KGV Park
Tourist Information Centre
I started going through my blog and looking from links to share where I had writen about these topics; you will find most of them if you use the search on this blog, so I haven't cluttered the post up with links. If you want to know more, please just ask me.
Published Friday, 10th May 2024
News from and a taste of Melksham Town Council
At last night's Town Council meeting (29th April 2024), we took 12 votes, and I voted to support 11 of the items we voted on. I was not, however, in support of all the motions on as specified on the original agenda and some were modified so I could support the vote though not the original proposal. Let me go through some of the issues that came up.Grant funding for the Melksham Carnival is commonly agreed, but the information supplied to the meeting was unclear and it made sense for us to pay, with immediate effect (warning - that probably means in the next payment cycle) a sum that we are very clear that we have promised now, and sort out the data so that we can make a proper decision at the next finance meeting.
Grant funding for AgeUK is also very confused, and rather that voting to move funds around in a way unclear, we have asked for the situation to be clarified for a subsequent meeting. I would very much like to get on with things, but it would have been foolish of me to support a motion that I only had fuzzy data on, and I am revived that the motion was modified to asking that our staff advise us clearly.
The deputy mayor, Tom Price, proposed changes to the terms of reference to the staffing committee, a group of 5 councillors of whom he is one, but his suggestions were not in the agenda pack and he read out his suggestions of some significant changes. I have misgivings when a vote is brought to council without the opportunity for councillors to read, research, think. I have felt tricked in the past by such motions which have had significant repercussions and ask "why have we not been given proper time?". There will be emergencies, but this was not one; I think the proposals could easily have been described when Tom put the motion into the agenda.
Not withstanding my concerns, I supported the first of Tom's amendments and we passed the first one of these. Councillors for this committee are now to be selected every year rather than being in place on the committee, which usually works in confidential sessions, for the full four years. It should (IMHO) never have been four years in the first place - set in May 2021, or rather present prior to that meeting by party / groups, and they locked themselves into the roles. A good change - I am not looking for a clean sweep, but there are a number of us including new councillors who have a significant experience in staffing matters, including motivating staff and running an effective organisation, and there should be a democratic opportunity to tune our management team (which is what staffing has become) during our term.
Tom went on to propose changes to 3.5 and 3.7 in the terms of reference (I think I have those right) and the council voted through one of the changes. I abstained from that vote; I did not understand how this first change interacted with others (I am probably dumber than most councillors) and was concerned at what the result will / would be. As the conversation moved on to Tom's next change, other councillors expressed similar concerns to mine that we were creating a set of rules that contradicted each other, and setting needlessly different systems up for our next clerk and his or her deputy. I'm glad others followed by lead, and rather than continue with a series of votes with all us amateur councillors pressing to get our amassments and views in, it has very sensibly been referred to lour locum clerk, a lady with many years in the business, to suggest and updates well ahead of the next meeting. It makes double sense because the lady is a locum - a temporary clerk - and that means she can make the suggestions without any question of them being tuned to suit her ongoing employment - i.e. there is no danger of a conflict of interest.
Lighting in the Park (yay, we have done it!?) has raised serious concerns with the residents nearby who's homes are now "floodlit". After tossing the subject around, we decided to invite the contractor who installed them to come along and give us professional advice. I would also like to hear from the two councillors who dealt with our lighting to the Forest Community Centre; I know they interacted with close neighbours at the time, and their help may also guide us towards a sensible outcome. I do hope that all residents near the park will be invited to the meeting - and by "invited" I do not just mean that they can attend if they find it deep on the agenda.
The minutes / notes of various groups came to council for us to "receive" including the Communications Working Group from the start of March. Their notes from their late march meeting are on the council web site, but not from their late April one which - news to me - was cancelled. On enquiring on the date of the next meeting - for all councillors may sit in on any working group, there was a degree of confusion; as I understand it, 7th May has been proposed but won't be happening and I should keep my eyes peeled to the council diary as it will be added to that when set. As a working group, that may be at just a couple of days notice. I find this ironic for a group that's about communications.
The Church Street toilet block - owned by Wiltshire Council and currently out of use - is divided into two sections, a store and a toilet area. Melksham Pet Larder would like to take over and refurnish the store area and explained to the council about their work, the need for it and premises, their enthusiasm, and the volume of their work. Public toilets are a popular request too, and - I am delighted - the council has asked our officers to report back on the risks and costs of us doing this. It seems to make sense, but it would be a seven year commitment and not to be jumped into lightly. Significantly, the Pet Larder has been gently growing for a considerable time, was well represented and spoken for last night, and I am already getting feedback this morning.
I am very conscious that the [role of] Clerk and Head of Operations have already / also been tasked with taking forward the probably much larger scheme of the Blue Pool, also on offer from Wiltshire Council, and I look forward to progress on both projects. I am also aware that there are not significant funds in the coffers or budget for "shovels in the ground" on either of these two projects, whereas there are funds for the East of Melksham Community Hall which is another project in the works.
And so at the end of the meeting, we went into confidential session concerning The Neighbourhood Plan. The consultation last winter has been analysed and threw up some challenges, and some other things have become clearer in the intervening months too. David Pafford, chair of the Neighbourhood Plan, spoke the Town Council's Economic Development and Planning Committee last week. It's a joint plan for the Melksham area with Melksham Without, our surrounding parish, and his briefing was welcome there, with all councillors invited. I can't go into any of the content, but I think I can tell you that it was on the agenda for "one of our plan reps to update us", with no report attached to the agenda pack. There are two reps - Pat Aves and myself, and I had not been alerted to the item in the agenda pack; I had only found it as I prepared for the meeting over the weekend. In the event, Pat was not present when I got to that agenda item; for sure, I had notes and I'm pretty well informed so was able to start talking to it.
Of course, having picked up Tom (and Jon) earlier in the evening, they in turn picked me up on not having a written and circulated report. Ah well - it'll come back to full council on 21st May when we have a special extra meeting to look at joint projects with Melksham Without. Joint projects include Shurnold Fields, Real Time Passenger Information in bus shelters, the loos in the Market Place, finance for the East of Melksham Community Hall, other joint CIL funding, and the Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan.
Councillor Simon Crundell said this would be his last at mayor, and that he's looking forward to taking a step back. Melksham Town Council is in the midst of structural change that's ongoing and in many ways, two years is too short a time. I would love to see Simon carrying on for another year, and believe that continuity would be the very best for the town. However, two years is also too long a time for the pressures imposed by this voluntary job in addition to full time work, and I understand and respect his decision and thank him for all the hard work and time he has put in over the past 24 months. Melksham Town Council had major issues when Simon took over, and it still has - however, a course has been plotted and embarked upon to and I look forward to working with Simon's succesors in both the mayor and deputy mayor roles to help us conclude those issues in the future interests of Melksham though its residents, its town council staff, its volunteers, its businesses, and its councillors. Thank you, Simon.
Conclusions? None - just an update on various projects and a flavour for council activity as I see it. Inputs welcome!
Published Tuesday, 30th April 2024
22.5.2024 - Looking ahead with TransWilts
On Wednesday, 22nd May 2024, Paddy Bradley, the recently appointed chair of the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership, will address members and guests of the West Wiltshire Rail Users Group. Coffee available from 19:00, and Paddy will be filling us in from 19:30. There will also be a brief general rail news update for the area, and an opportunity to network and ask questions. The event takes place at the Bethesda Church Hall, which is about 100 yards from Trowbridge Station, and will conclude in time for people who are headed home by train to catch their services:
21:18 to Cardiff Central via BoA, Bath and Bristol
21:22 to Swindon via Melksham and Chippenham (connection to Paddington)
21:31 to Weymouth via Westbury (connection to Plymouth) and Frome
21:52 for intermediate stations to Bristol including Avoncliff
21:58 to Portsmouth Harbour via Dilton Marsh, Warminster and Salisbury
Public very welcome - we (at WWRUG) ask you for £2 as a contribution towards our costs as we are an independent group funded purely by our members, or you could join on the night for £8 a year (£10 for family).
Since the TransWilts Community Rail Partnership was formed some 15 years ago, to help promote use of the rail line from Swindon via Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge to Westbury, services and use have been transformed out of all recognition. From around 10 passengers a day using Melksham station, served only by this line, numbers have risen to over 200 passengers on an average day, and that's only a part of the story with the same trains also providing a link in just 19 minutes between Wiltshire's largest towns of Chippenham and Trowbridge. The 20 fold passenger increase has been made possible by a four fold increase in the number of services, and the doubling of the length of the trains which has ensured that there is room on the trains for the passengers.
A success story, yes, which has been helped along by that partnership between the community and the rail industry with local and national government playing a crucial role too. But this is a story of a project that's still under way. The numbers look impressive as presented above, but the train service at just 9 a day is still thin, and many people tell me that they don't use it because of the inconvenience of the long gaps. Analysis including comparisons with other similar services and towns in England suggests that an increase to an hourly "clock-face" service in which the train leaves at the same time in every hour - that's 16 or 17 services a day - would increase passenger journey numbers to at least 700 per day (using the to / from Melksham measure), and that the quarter of a million annual journeys now made on the line would become more like a million each year.
I live in Melksham, and have been an advocate of improving this service for some 20 years; within the community, I have helped with the promotion. Melksham's railway station is only a ten minute walk from the Town Bridge, and is close to some housing such as Foundry Close, Scotland Road and Southbrook Road - however, work remains to be done to make the service welcoming and practical for more people.
Melksham Railway Issues - Identifying them
* The railway station is across the trunk A350 road from the town centre and that is crossed by a subway which at present is unwelcoming and graffitied. 15 years ago, it was dark painted and decorate with railway scenes that were showing signs of age. As part of "LSTF" improvements that included the initial train service improvements, it was cleaned up and painted white ready to receive new, bright, robust, owned decoration from a local organisation. However, it turned out that they had bitten off more than they could chew, and the project did not get beyond talk. More recently, someone else has been looking at this in association with Melksham Town Council but there have not been the available staff resources to progress the project. And those white painted walls, with little sign of any progress, have been a magnet for the graffiti artists.
* Although the housing that I mentioned is close to the station, it isn't directly accessible from there. Melksham Station is at the end of the "Station Approach" Cul-de-sac which leans off south east from the station through light industry. Foundry Close it to the north, Southbrook Road is to the West and walking or cycling between homes and station circuitous and alongside an "A" road.
* Much of Melksham's housing is on the opposite side of the town to the station, beyond walking distance for many. There are no buses to the station, and those which pass the top of Station Approach are not synchronised to connect with the trains nor are there don't stop there anyway.
* The station is a lot better than it was when I first got involve, but it's a lonely place with no public loo, no place to get a quick cup of coffee, and no friendly face to get time and ticket advice or directions into Town, even at the busiest times of day. For the regular commuter, we are OK - for the occasional user, newcomer, vulnerable or timid person it's off-putting.
Melksham Railway Issues - looking to fix them
Having identified the issues, there are potential solutions and some of them are already underway.
* New Houses for which planning has been approved on the "upside yard" at the station come with a requirement on the developers to clean up the land and that has been extended as community payback for them to clean up the land to the north to allow a footpath to be opened to Foundry Close to the north. Joined up thinking - this is in various local plans
* Another attempt is likely to be made with the subway - the shortage of Town Council project staff resources is easing and this will at the least allow us to get back with people who have offered help and perhaps pick things up.
* An opening of a path to Foundry Close will allow better access to buses on route x34, which are frequent enough to allow reasonable connections to Beanacre, Berryfield, Semington Road and Semington itself.
* The test run in September 2022 of an electric town bus with a route from the station through the centre to the housing on the far side - East on Melksham, the sports ground, the surgery areas, and Bowerhill and Hampton Park employment area, connecting into the x34 at the Police Station was a successful demonstration and is a project in waiting for funding.
* Connecting bus routes 68, 69, 271, 272 and 273 with trains remain problematic. And extra inbound stop on the A365 could be provided at the top of station approach. Outbound, I appreciate that there is nowhere safe for a bus stop and the resultant passengers waiting and getting off and on. It has been suggested to me that passengers use the stop in front of Blenheim House but this (for me anyway) is a walk of over five minutes and a crossing of a A road on which traffic is moving fast and there's a blind brow. It's also possible to walk from / to New Broughton Road bus stop via the Subway - safer, but more like 10 minutes and certainly not a "bus to the station".
* TransWilts opened a cafe at Melksham Station when Covid has temporarily decimate passenger numbers and it must have been a difficult decision for them as to whether to proceed. As it was, the venture failed to make the revenue required by their business plan. There is scope for a revised approach, making the toilet and a simple coffee and packeted snack service available, and providing through knowledgable volunteers a welcome and information at the station.
Looking Forward
TransWilts has a Melksham MasterPlan, and I look forward to hearing perhaps a little on it from Paddy on 22nd May, but almost certainly it would be just a little; there is so much scope for TransWilts, both in carrying on with the excellent work o long term goals they have been doing, and in picking up the short and medium term rail and passenger support opportunities.
Published Saturday, 27th April 2024
Can I park here? Can I drop something off?
The double yellow lines mean "no parking at any time"The single yellow flash across the curb means "no loading at times specified on a sign nearby". In the Town Centre in Melksham, there are lots of single yellow flashes - and most of the signs say "no loading Mon - Fri 8 - 9 a.m. 4.30 - 6.00 p.m. Saturday 9.30 a.m - 2 p.m."
So together, you can't park nor can you pick up or drop off in the morning or afternoon peaks, nor on a Saturday morning. But outside those peak hours you CAN drop things off and then move on to park elsewhere, or do a kerbside pickup.
The above applies to everyone except emergency services in the course of their immediate response to an emergency. Additionally, there is a concession than blue badge holders are allowed to park on yellow lines on the road, but not WHERE (and not when) there are loading restrictions. There is a three hour limit on such parking, with badge holders required to set their arrival time indicator. The concession does not appply to yellow lines in off street car parks. The concession is nationwide but in some authority areas may be trumped by other rules, so outside Wiltshire, please check.
Please do check local signage - these particular restrictions are the ones applied in much of Melksham Town Centre, but there are other varients and not all of hem are clear from just the yellow lines and flashes.
Published Friday, 26th April 2024
Principles of being a good councillor
"You won't find many people who disagree with the Nolan Principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership" says the front page of the Good Governance Institute, and indeed I don't disagree with the principles. But there is nothing in law to require your elected councillors to adhere to them in everything we do. In fact as Town or Parish councillors, whilst we (like everyone else in the country) need to adhere to the law, we are pretty much free to do as we wish, with just an ongoing penalty of losing the respect and ability to influence our colleagues if we transgress in a way they do not approve of, and with a potential penalty of being voted out next time around, should we consider it to be a penalty to lose an unpaid volunteer job.A member of the public in my ward has been in touch with me to raise a concern about the behaviour of a fellow councillor of mine (from another ward) - "who do I report this to" I am asked. My first reaction having heard just one side of the story is "perhaps to the police" but really that would need to be an extreme situation for it to be worthwhile. I'm the only Melksham Town Councillor elected independently of a grouping. Somewhat relieved the complaint is not about me, and for all of the others you could have a word with the people who lead their group. Different situation, but I note that MPs who have been naughty girls or boys can lose their party whip and be chucked out of the club, which does no good in terms of their chances of a senior role or help locally to get back in.
So - sorry - we town councillors are pretty well teflon coated! Most of us do agree with those fine principles, but in most of them there are shades of grey; I have some excellent colleagues but most of us perhaps deliver less than we could on those principles. I become exhausted from leading and perhaps sit back more than I should and follow rather than leading at times. Others make decisions or proposals based on limited public information - not being open. If we're campaigning to be re-elected or be promoted, are we really being selfless, and if we're pushing a pet project are we being objective?
So - to the person who wants to complain about a town councillor - you could informally ask the mayor, or the councillor's party leader, or the Town Clerk, and any of those might result in a quiet word in their ear reminding them of the priciples. But such has been the level of robust conflict of late that such quiet words tend to fall on already-deaf ears. If it's serious enough such as an assault then you should involve the police.
We have mostly excellent councillors who do their level best to adhere to the Nolan principles. Time is given for free (and sometimes taken advantage of) and it's to the great credit of these councillors that they rarely snap, they rarely let "leadership" turn into bullying. But, yes, there is a temptation that must be resisted when a helpful guiding word is offered but is unwelcome.
Diagram from a far more detailed article at Surviving Church - "Exploring abuse in The Church. Why does it happen? How can we move on?"
Addendum Members of the public who feel that a councillor at any level in Wiltshire who has acted outside their/our code of conduct can also complain to the monitoring officer at Wiltshire Council. You will find details under the "Complaints about a councillor / council member" tag at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/article/1735/About-the-council.
Published Wednesday, 24th April 2024
Sustainable Energy in Melksham
Illustration - the electric car charger points in the King Street Car Park, and we have other public charging points in the South Ward on Spa Road at the SEB offices and depot, and at the Wiltshire Council campus. Elsewhere in Melksham there are public charging points at McDonalds and the Railway Station, and perhaps others I don't know about, and those of us who are fortunate enough to live in a house with a driveway are able to install a private car charger too.But switching from a petrol or diesel car to an electric one does not magically remove the need for an energy source to move the vehicle. With petrol or diesel, that's energy released from fossil fuel within the vehicle, and for an electric car it might be (the worst option IMHO) simply a move away from generation in the vehicle to generation at a power station from burning oil - or gas, or coal (formerly), or biomaterial, or waste, all of which are hardly carbon friendly. Thank goodness we have other options available to us. Wave power and other forms of hydroelectric, wind power and solar power are "sustainable", other sources such as nuclear are to put it mildly contentious and may well leave an unwanted legacy for thousands of years.
Here in Wilshire, what are our sustainable generation options? Should we be even concerned, as a landlocked county with a relatively high population density compared to places outside England, should we assume that we can say "not appropriate in my back yard" to sustainable generation systems which need space and expect other places with geography that leads to more efficient generation, and with less effect on their populations, to generate power for us? On the flip side, places like London are even less suited to generate the power (by wind turbine, for example) that they need, so should we be doing so as best we can here in Wiltshire and shipping it to them?
Many of the homes and commercial buildings in our town ARE suited to "rooftop" generation of electricity - as an example we have solar panels on the roof of our home and generate the majority of electricity we use, including charging the electric car. Solar generation comes when it's light and that's only half the time - less in winter, and so we have a battery which stores power when we are generating more than we are using, so that we can use it later. Our car also has a battery (as do all electric cars) and we charge it in the sunshine, and "trickle" so that we're not pulling off the grid as it refills.
The Town Hall is probably not suitable for solar panels (educated guess, listed building restrictions), but the Assembly Hall probably is, and I'm pretty sure from the structural survey done that the Blue Pool could host a considerable array that would generate more power than needed by Melksham Town Council and make a local contribution.
Let's look wider at opportunities to help provide sustainable / renewable energy in the Melksham area - and these are contentious:
There is an ongoing early consultation on a large battery storage area at Whitley. That's in association with a large area of solar panels at Malmesbury. In that part of the county the headline reaction has been very negative indeed, with public opinion as showing on media being very negative indeed. Voiced reception in the Whitley area as been negative too. Interestingly, although I saw a large area suggested for batteries, I did not see any suggestion of solar panels on top of them. Perhaps I have missed something in the fine print?
I have been watching the sale of the former Cooper Tires land by Cushman Wakefield - Plot A being largely brownfield land on the west of the Avon and Plot B being greenfield on the east - total site area 68.5 acres according to the Wiltshire Times.
Melksham's Green Space group entered a bid for Plot B, but have lost out and as I write this I don't know who too. I do note "The selling agents Cushman & Wakefield offered the freehold for sale, saying it would prefer the whole site to be acquired by one buyer, although it was willing to accept separate offers for 'Area A' and 'Area B'" and a likely scenario is that they have, as per there stated preference, selected an offer that includes both. Area A is the old factory site and has complex re-use issues, but those challenger can be overcome, whereas Area B is for the most part land with severe flooding issues and is not proposed for housing or industrial use in the new local or neighbourhood plans. I speculate that there's a strong chance that the whole sale has gone through to a company looking at the redevelopment of Area A and with little or no real interest in Area B, but including it in their purchase in order to increase their chances of winning the "prize" of the main site.
Should my speculation prove correct, there may well be an opportunity for the Green Space group to negotiate either a purchase or lease of the area they were interested in, even having a better chance now because there may also be a desire on the part of the new owners to offload what was in effect an unwanted part of the total purchase.
There's also another very interesting scenario in that a redeveloper of the Plot A / factory site looking to achieve a carbon neutral build and meet requirements could look to Plot B for energy generation. There are three options and they could be combined:
* Solar
* Wind
* Hydro-electric
I read "Solar Farms can produce up to 5 megawatts (MW) on approximately 25 acres of land … which is enough to power 10,000 homes and businesses." I also read that solar panels on a flood plain are regarded as being 95% penetrable by flood waters and take that as confirming that the land which is currently used for growing a corn crop each year might be used for generating electricity - and with the land on the periphery, perhaps, preserved for biodiversity and leisure use - it could be attractive.
Wind turbines need a staggering amount of space (though you can do plenty underneath them!) and ideally you would get just one of the largest model in, or potentially two slightly smaller giving approaching 4 MW of generation.
We have a head of water in the River Avon (interesting maintained at the Melksham Gate for industrial use by the Mill and later by Avon, Goodyear and Cooper Titres. Some work has already been done with regard the feasibility of this, using an Achemidies screw; as an educated guess the amount of electricity generated would be very very much less than solar or wind, but never the less worthwhile.
All three options could co-exist and work together, peaking at different times of day / year and to some extent balancing out, though some form of storage would be useful. Looking at the 'numbers' we could come close generating enough power to making Melksham Town net carbon zero.
I started at the beginning of this ramble taking about electric car charging and where that electricity comes from, suggesting that an electric car isn't much good if you simply burn fossil fuel (or anything else) somewhere else to power it. But actually, how you provide power is only one part of the equation. The other side of the equation is how much power to need.
Lisa and I drove in our electric car to a difficult-to-access-from-Melksham place in Bristol the other day. With a fossil fuelled car with a conventional engine, braking as you go down the hills generates heat that's lost into the environment but with the electrics, the braking is regenerative. I'm sure that there's significant energy loss in taking in out and saving it back, but is does lower the consumed energy.
Is there a need to drive individually? Should we be using public transport which is naturally more efficient for mass transit journeys? Should we improve and join up public transport to encourage this? Should we (and those hundreds of cars every hour with spare seats) be able to fill the seats as we travel? For short journeys on our own, should we legalise and use an electric scooter?
I have looked at the things we could do to reduce the power needs of transport as it's an area I know a bit about, and it's a significant CO2 generator / use of power that is stubbornly resistant to reduction. But other areas are also important. Home and office power use for keeping warm - insulation, draught exclusion, turning the thermostat down a degree or two, reducing the heating in rooms that are not in use, etc. Then there is industrial use. According to Staistica, electricity use has dropped from 350 terawatt hours in 2005 to 274 terawatt hours in 2022, and that in not withstanding a transfer of elements from oil to electric. Oil use dropped from 1.8 million barrels per day in 2005 to 1.3 million barrels per day in 2022.
Before I "put my pen down", I should also note that sustainable electricity and fossil and burning based provision are not the only energy sources. Where does nuclear come into this mix? How do heat pumps fit into the picture? Geothermal systems?
I started this article with a picture of an electric car charging point here in Melksham and asking "where does the electricity come from?" I wondered if and hw we should collect or generate it locally or import it, and indeed whether we should be collecting or generating it for other communities whose structure make it harder for them than us. And then I took a look at energy requirements, and whether we need to collect or generate as much power in the first place. Complex topics, no solutions - but in writing and thinking it has certainly helped me see the complexity and issues.
Published Sunday, 21st April 2024