Graham Ellis - my blog
Town Council - an extra £120,000 for staff after all
The Town Council budget which was detailed in December 2023 and confirmed the following month takes us through to April 2025. Sixteen months ahead, it really has to be a plan which can be updated within the overall boundaries set and not much more - even Town Councillors do not have crystal balls. Image from Melksham News in January - click on image for full articleAt Tuesday's Full Council meeting, we voted to transfer £120,000 from our "General reserves" to our staffing budget - full text of the public draft minutes below. The Town Council spends more that half of its precept income on staff, and for a town like Melksham £120,000 is a big sum.
I want here to correct an error of fact during the discussions. It was stated by another councillor that all councillors voted to pare back spending this year with a very small increase, below inflation yet again. That was not the case ad I was adamant at the time that we needed to set a realistic budget to take ourselves forward. Against protocol, I interrupted to correct the error of fact stated by another councillor, but in line with Town Council protocol, my interruption was stopped by the mayor.
In the tail of 2023, we set a budget which remains, in my view, inadequate and out of line with what we wish to do, and failed to allow for any contingencies. We do have a reserve which we are raiding, but that is a fix for this year only as years of keeping the precept low have resulted, inevitably, in a building problem and a need / desire to put up the precept for next year. That is no longer just my view - it was expressed by several other councillors too, including some party to the decision made last December that inevitably has driven us towards this situation, which has been exacerbated by the unplanned needs of the staffing budget.
Now - contrary to how this might read, I am 110% in support of us maintaining a well compensated, well motivated, permanent staff team at the Town Council and we have some excellent staff. I welcome all of those who have joined us in the last 15 months or so to do the very job that we as councillors have voted that we wish to have done on behalf of the town and its residents.
For the 2025/26 budget, which will be formulated in coming months and set in January, it is our duty as councillors to come up with something that will probably work. We owe it to the new councillors seated from next May, who have to work within the guidelines set by this current bunch - myself included - of old hands. And that includes any members who are looking to get re-elected for 2025 to 2029 based on current shorter term perceptions of them by the electorate.
There was discussion on the request Concerns about the effect on future years budget and precept were raised and discussed. It was suggested that the funds should be ring-fenced rather than transferred so that budget discussions for 2025/26 will show an accurate overspend on 2024/25 budget. Councillor Ellis wanted it recorded that he had misgivings but had trust in those who made the decision on staffing and would support the request. It was pointed out that there were one off cost burdens to the staffing budget this year and that £100000 had been cut during 2024/25 budget discussions. Some members expressed the view that if projects and events were to be actioned then council must provide the resources. It was proposed by Councillor Hubbard, seconded by the Town Mayor Councillor Price and RESOLVED to ring-fence the sum of £120,000 from general reserves for additional staffing costs. |
Image from https://melkshamnews.com/council-budget-cuts-staff-costs-and-maintains-services/
Blue Pool - old pictures
These old pictures of the Blue Pool (source - Alfie Sparks via Terri Welch, with permission, rescanned) are fascinating - some showing clearly the older tall rear section of the Assembly Hall and very clearly the doorways and windows into that remain, but currently covered, between the two buildings.
Published Wednesday, 9th October 2024
Neighbourhood Plan - adopted unanimously by Town Council
I am delighted that Melksham Town Council signed off the draft Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan II, to run through to 2038, earlier this evening. Myself and councillor Aves have bene representing the Town Council on the steering group in the work to get this monumental piece of work completed.Please find below what I said at tonight's meeting. It was then proposed by councillor Jon Hubbard and seconded by councillor Adrienne Westbrook that we ratify the plan and take it forward, and I am heppy that it was then unanimously passed - fully supported and indeed lead tonight - by those councillors.
What I said ... to describe the plan and the people involved:
I commend to you the plan that goes to Wiltshire Council and inspection. It is an ambitious plan, protecting town centre, heritage and green space assets and looking for quality in town rejuvenation and growth with new housing where it is logical, and of a fitting type, standard and mix.
The Neighbourhood Plan has been much consulted on and the sheer volume and quality of inputs has both helped us on the steering and other groups and the community shape it well, but has also put up the time and cost of the work. Concern is often expressed that new housing is built without infrastructure. Under an adopted Neighbourhood Plan, 25% (rather that 15%) of the "Community Infrastructure Levy" on developers goes to the plan area and that is a significant sum. Our agreement with Melksham Without is that we share the extra 10% on joint projects to the benefit of both communities and as house building in the local plan is predominantly in Melksham Without, this is a very good deal for the town, who's facilities those new residents will use.
If we pass this plan tonight - and I do not propose to talk through all hundred pages that wave been widely open for consultation for a year - it goes to Wiltshire Council and then an inspector to check for detailed legality and then comes to a final referendum in the town. The plan is an ambitious one and can scale well with any central government diktat for extra housing such as their 80% uplift proposed. Indeed the plan serves that well by already setting standards and providing for extra town and parish infrastructure expenditure if that uplift is realised.
I have been the junior Town Council rep on the steering group for several years, and would like to add my thanks to Pat Aves and Linda Roberts who have provided MTC support, and to the staff and councillors at Melksham Without and at Place Studios - too many to mention the all but I must mention "lead" of David Pafford as chair, Teresa Strange as clerk of MWPC and Vaughan Thompson of Place Studios. Between them and so many others from our community, they have produced an excellent plan which guides us well for the next decade and beyond, and I commend this plan to you.
And the plan in context as described in the introduction by David Pafford
The first Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan (JMNP) 2020 – 2026
was brought into force on 1st July 2021 when our community gave it
the thumbs up, through a positive community referendum result. It is
therefore adopted as part of the Development Plan for Wiltshire to
be used to guide and decide upon planning applications.
Ongoing and new issues like providing affordable homes in the
right places, tackling climate change and helping local businesses
recover from the impact of COVID make it imperative that our
Neighbourhood Plan evolves to continue to provide a strong local
planning voice, alongside Wiltshire’s emerging new Local Plan that
will set out where new homes and jobs will be provided looking
ahead to 2038.
To achieve this Melksham Town and Melksham Without Parish
Councils, and the Steering Group jointly launched the review of
the Neighbourhood Plan to look ahead to 2038. The result is
this second edition of the Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan
(JMNP2). It has been updated and added to in order to make sure
it remains up-to-date, forward looking and strong.
This is a bold Plan that goes beyond minimum requirements, with
the aim of getting the best possible outcomes from development for
our communities as well as providing a legacy for future generations
from a plan-led regeneration of brownfield sites.
It tackles the difficult issue of housing shortage and need, by taking
a positive and proactive approach to managing future development.
It prioritises the regeneration of both the Cooper Tires and the Old
Library site to support the delivery of homes, jobs and town centre
vitality. Both of these projects attracted strong community support
at the consultation stage.
At Shaw and Whitley, the strategy protects the separate identities
of each village and enables the delivery of much needed smaller
and more affordable homes.
The Plan even seeks to ensure that development granted at
appeal, such as land South of Western Way, delivers on local
priorities.
From those members of our community who are part of our
Steering Group, to the people who joined our working groups, to
those who have responded to our consultations; it’s local people
who have helped to shape this update.
Our thanks to the many of you who have taken the time, in one
way or another, to contribute to this Plan, to make sure it stays
bang up-to-date and gives us the strongest possible say in local
planning decisions.
David Pafford
Chair of Melksham Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group and
Melksham Without Parish Councillor
Where can I read it?
I have mirrored tonight's agenda pack, including the full exact version of the Neighbourhood Plan that was put to councillors, at https://grahamellis.uk/lib/full_20241008.pdf
Published Tuesday, 8th October 2024
Blue Pool, Canberra, Staff Budget, financial regulations
At last night's special full council meeting (30.9.2024) ...Blue Pool
A unanimous decision to go ahead and negotiate the purchase of the Blue Pool from Wiltshire Council, taking into account practical access to the building / site for the future over Wiltshire Council land, and giving Wiltshire Council a pedestrian right of way / right of public access over the pedestrian path to the Melksham Campus and to Melksham House. Much comment made to get the transfer made with all due haste, and in legal and local government terms that suggests within the next six months - in other words in time for the new council elected in May 2025 to have their full four years to move the project forward, and those of currently on the council to be able to point to the purchase as an achievement of our time in office.
There are multiple opportunities for the future of the to-be newly acquired Blue Pool. We could provide an expanded facility to meet the bursting needs of the Assembly Hall and overcome access, reception and bar issues amongst others there, providing museum, extra rooms to meet venue demand, and efficiency for staff. We could demolish and rebuild the whole indoor venue setup for the town, or provide a free car park instead. Or we could sell off the site for housing; not in line with the Neighbourhood Plan, but if the new government pressures / requires more housing, who knows?
Open area to rear of Canberra
A grant of just under £8,000 was agreed to help fund path provision prior to tree planting on the green field area that's held in trust as green space, and indeed is a designated green space in the draft neighbourhood plan too. Good call for the field, though the Council's stated policy is to improve all the various facilities at KGV so that the KGV park becomes ever more an outdoor venue for the whole of our community.
Staffing Budget
The Town Hall Staffing budget is already 66% spent and we are just five months into the financial year, and The Clerk requested that we transfer £120,000 from our reserves into the staffing budget. As promised papers to help explain this had not been provided to councillors, the decision was put off until next week's further additional full council meeting (18:45 on 8th October). I have questions about this and will feel much more comfortable if more fully informed, and indeed a public question was asked to which no answer was immediately available. Over half of the Town Council's budget is spent on staffing, though much of the detail is not in the public domain because of privacy issues; even councillors such as myself who are not part of the "inner sanctum" can only guess at times.
Other financial management systems
On a separate matter, the council adopted a new set of Financial Regulations / procedures, as recommended by the national organisation of local government officers. These are said to protect staff and councillors and reduce fraud (of which there is no suggestion to my knowledge in Melksham) but could add a significant onus / workload onto staff and councillors. Even under old "regs" it's been hard to get councillors available to sign things off in the Town Hall, and the paragraph above shown how staff too struggle to get information out in good time. Personally, I used to go to the Town Hall to sign off many of the bills and was often disappointed at how disjoined the system has been on placing orders, and also on how long it was taking us at times to pay suppliers. Indeed, I stepped back from being a signatory as my ability to attend in person was not what was required by staff. Last night, we discussed the potential ability for councillors to approve expenditures and accounts remotely which would be an excellent and sensible move, meaning that it could be done not only in person and during Town Hall working hours only, but also of an evening or weekend when one or more of us could go through scanned documents to check and approve them.
Published Tuesday, 1st October 2024
Council - tonight - Indoor venue future
This evening, 30th September 2024 at 19:00, a Special (extra) meeting of Melksham Town Council. On the agenda - Blue Pool and Assembly Hall "To receive information to date, to agree the transfer of ownership of the Blue Pool on the terms set out by Wiltshire Council and agree next steps. For Decision". The public are welcome to observe. There is a separate public participations session prior to the main agenda at which "Members of the public are invited to address the council".Melksham Assembly Hall is our indoor venue for the community with a wide range of all weather activities taking part there throughout the year - in a typical month there are between 25 and 30 lets and events taking place there, with anywhere from 15 to 1500 people going through the door. It's estimate that the number of entries though the door is in excess of 50,000 per annum, the majority of whom are residents of Melksham Town, but also with a footfall from surrounding parishes and further afield to bringing in people to our town's businesses and economy. The needs survey confirms what people would like to see for the future.
The Assembly Hall is booked to capacity. On two occasions this summer, I have away from my councillor role attempted to make a booking, but had to move away to another venue, and I am not alone in that experience. Events are popular - we already have events in November for which tickets are sold out, and on wider town events such as table sales, staff are on duty for queuing and crowd control purposes. Truly a success. And we are rebuilding an excellent - skilled and enthusiastic staff team. Where help is accepted by the council, community volunteer skills bring a great deal to the hall, and there is a desire in the community to help further.
But all is not perfect. The entrance to the hall between parked cars and vans in not attractive and causes some concerns, the reception and bar area are too cramped for maximum benefit and indeed constraining, facilities such as loos are limited, and staff are sometimes underused with just a single event space. The hall is old and maintenance in some areas has fallen behind, resulting in it looking a little tired although basically sound and with excellent internal facilities. At the least, it needs bringing up to modern environmental standard such as fitting with solar panels to reduce the significant ongoing utility costs.
Attached to the Assembly Hall and sharing a main wall is the "Blue Pool" - the former swimming pool which became redundant with the opening of the Melksham Campus. The swimming pool and equipment was past its economic life, but the building itself is in reasonable condition - a large area with great potential to meet the more practical desires of the needs survey, and providing the solution to many of the issues raised already. The presentation by the friends of Melksham Assembly Hall last year, and available in their library online, gave councillors a glimpse of what could be done. Some work has carried on, though with staff changes and other urgent priorities at Melksham Town Council the work on taking the Assembly Hall and Blue Pool forward - important but not yet urgent - has been on hold.
Wiltshire Council - the current owner of the Blue Pool - has offered to sell it to the Town Council for s token amount, and we have to make a decision as to whether to take it. But that token amount payment would just be the start of something. We have options in a major decision.
1. We could purchase the Blue Pool, with (please) careful negotiation to ensure that we get he correct boundary line / walls, access, and take over and initial expenses to the county. We then have the opportunity over the life of the next council to expand the needed indoor provision with a new fit for purpose reception, catering and meeting area, loos, etc, with a a re-opening of access from the attractive and appropriate new reception area (no longer through parked cars!) to a hall with expanded adjunct facilities, a new smaller and tiered theatre area and cafe, a museum for Melksham, a reception area for all MTC enquiries as well as looking after catering and hires of all venues based there. The cost of doing this would be significant, though not in excess of the £2.1 million that MTC was prepared to pay for Melksham House at its March 2023 meeting - so it's feasible and within thoughts
2. We could purchase and rebuild the whole Assembly Hall and Blue Pool site, probably at a cost of ten times that of option 1. Loan funding would be available for us to do this, with repayment from an increased council tax over the next 20 to 30 years. There is information on this in your agenda pack for tonight, and options are many and varied. The timescale is such that we would be looking at this over coming years and at this stage further options form architects who have been approached and are waiting to hear from us are explored.
3. We could say "no thank you" to Wiltshire Council. And that would limit our future provision having decided not to take on the expanded footprint. Such a decision would not remove the ongoing costs of maintenance and continuation - or of closure and replacement / demolition of the Assembly Hall. It would mean that we have no say on the future of the Blue Pool which, we believe, Wiltshire Council would demolish with undefined and perhaps catastrophic outcomes for the Assembly Hall part of the overall building.
"For decision" says the agenda with 100 pages of supporting material - and there are some 70 different documents on the friends web site too. But this evening, I believe that what we need to decide is:
a) Whether to negotiate the purchase of the Blue Pool, via the appointment of a professional project lead / negotiator should we not have such a person on our team.
b) To instruct or allow to instruct that project lead to investigate further and bring back through council the ongoing project helping us as we decide between the various outcomes and details in (1) and (2), and to recommend ongoing operational directions to meet the needs of the community for both facility and event provision and for prudent financial outcome - a business plan which may or may not be direct development and operation by the Town Council, community groups, commercial operations or those in combination
c) To set aside a four figure sum in the current year's budget to cover additional insurance, security and other immediate costs for the Blue Pool from takeover should it complete before April 2025 though to end of the current financial year.
The last five years have been tough for public halls and venues such as ours. A revision of some of the interim risk-averse hire policies that were appropriate during the covid recovery period will put us in a far firmer financial base and we should look forward with this indoor venue in appropriate parallel with out outdoor KGV venue, and with s much lighter cost on the council tax payer than our outdoor facilities.
We have a great opportunity here - to take Melksham Forward, or to signal the beginning of the end of our provision to meeting the needs identified in our community. I commend to you a decision this evening to purchase the Blue Pool, with eyes open to the work to be done ahead and the opportunities if we all pull together.
Published Monday, 30th September 2024
Assembly Hall, Blue Pool, Canberra Community Park - decisions next Monday
A special/extra full Melksham Town Council meeting has been called for next Monday (30th September 2024). On the agenda "Blue Pool and Assembly Hall (Pages 1 - 110) To receive information to date, to agree the transfer of ownership of the Blue Pool on the terms set out by Wiltshire Council and agree next steps. For decision." and "Canberra Community Park (Pages 111 - 112) To agree to pay the sum of £7988.00 (£6657.00 plus £1331.00 VAT) to 4Youth for the installation of pathways in The Canberra Community Park. For decision."
A period of public participation will take place during the meeting. The Press and Public are welcome to attend this meeting.
The full agenda (published at lunchtime on 24th September) includes over 100 pages on the Blue Pool and Assembly Hall may be viewed / read / downloaded at https://moderngov.microshadeapplications.co.uk/MelkshamTC/documents/g1097/Agenda2030th-Sep-2024%2019.0020Council.pdf?T=0
These are major decisions. Taking the next step on the future direction for the Assembly Hall and Blue Pool is long overdue and you can read from over 100 pages of text the documents from the last five years which, however have not been taken forward for the best part of a year and need to be acted on. In contrast, the Canberra Community Park came to us on Monday of this week with indecent haste; having now had 48 hours to read and consider the data, it does seem to make sense for the Town Council to provide the requested support.
Published Tuesday, 24th September 2024
Report on HIGH PRIORITY, MTC projects
Here are the 41 Melksham Town Council projects (out of over 100) that are described as "High Priority" at present. 27 of them are described as "Next Steps Required" on the spread sheet which is in the agenda pack for tonight, most of the rest "In Progress".The 50 page agenda pack is on the Town Council's website, but I have mirrored the 5 vital pages [here] so you can read about projects with which you are concerned. Please note that this list is dated the week before last, as due to MTC officer unavailability last week it had to be done early.
2. Allotment Audit and Management
3. Allotments- Water Troughs
6. Assembly Hall Refurbishment
7. ATBShop Skate Events (2024)
9. Awdry Avenue Play Area
11. Blue Pool Acquisition
12. BMX Pump Track
13. Bowmans Court Lighting
17. Church Street Toilets Transfer
27. Floral Phone Boxes
30. Green Flag Status for KGV
33. Joint Cemetery Strategy
37. KGV Eco Loos Conversion
40. KGV Masterplan
41. KGV Sensory Garden
42. KGV Signage
54. Melksham East Community Centre
58. Newsletter
61. Play Area Signage
62. Play Area Strategy
63. Project Assurance Sub-Committee and/or Project Action Plan
64. Proms in the Park (2024)
67. Recruitment of Assembly Hall Staff
68. Recruitment of Deputy Town Clerk
69. Recruitment of Events & Community Development Officer
70. Recruitment of Part Time HR Officer
71. Remembrance (2024)
75. Rivermead School Parking
78. Safeguarding Policy
80. Skate Park Signage
85. Splash Pad Resurfacing
86. Splash Pad Signage
87. Staffing Structure
88. Street Trees
90. Town Centre CCTV
94. Town Hall Clock
95. Town Hall Flag Flying and Lights Policy Update
98. Website Structure
99. Website Upgrade
100. Wiltshire Towns Programme Funding
101. Youth Advisory Board
Also on the agenda tonight, but not on the council's high priority list, are other items such as the Neighbourhood Plan, Canberra Community Park, the A350 underpass, and Town Hall opening hours.
Running a Town Council is like trying to put a complicated jigsaw together, and one on which some pieces are missing and have to be made afresh, and others keep popping out.
We have some excellent officers at Melksham Town Council - BUT we have not had an active Town Clerk, Deputy Clerk, HR person, RFO, or Strategic Planner for "years", nor a community and events officer through the busy summer. Current locums in the clerk and RFO roles are working on and through a backlog but it's far from instant and neither has the Melksham experience base (though they have excellent role experience) and it will take time to do that, during which time everyone wants THEIR job prioritising, and more gets added to the list too. Key in the list above is "recruitment" which has progressed even from the report 10 days ago. Even that is not a quick fix as even the most excellent of new arrivals will be learning in and picking up the reins. We all (councillors, other staff, residents) all need to be helpful and considerate as we move forward, resisting the temptation to unreasonably pressure members of the team.
UPDATE from the Council meeting. I am informed that the inclusion of the project matrix in public domain as was done within this agenda pack is not something that will be repeated. It is regarded as "micromanagement" and the knowledge that it would be in the public domain would discourage staff from putting information on it. There are plans / thoughts to include an edited version on a new web site - item no. 99 on the list above.
Published Monday, 23rd September 2024
Update on some Melksham projects
A dozen questions I have been asked with a "what is happening" theme ...
1. Movement of the Avon War memorial
- Planned to be in time for Remembrance, but is turned out to have far deeper foundations than expected. Not sure where that stands today - 15th September 2024 – but has been brought to the attention of councillors with the help of social media and the BBC - ((link here)).
2. Opening of the footpath to The Oak
- Awaiting a report on the wildlife effect of the path and the lighting. Not sure if there's a chance that this report may raise issues that require mitigation and how long the project will then take.
3. Real Time Information in the bus stops
Already installed near "The Pilot" and working well. Promised "by the end of August" in the Market Place and at the King's Arms but not there on Saturday 14th September.
4. Opening of Rocket Road
Requires completion of light controlled pedestrian crossing, surfacing, and conclusion of paperwork in view of public input on speed limits, with clear signage to be in place prior to opening
5. Planning application for the upside yard
This one has been quiet for a couple of years in the public domain while issues relating to potential flooding have been modelled and confirmed to be all in order.
6. Buying the Blue Pool
MTC really should be getting a move on. This is one of the most important things for the future, but not being picked up by the job role charged with doing so over a year ago.
7. Opening Melksham House
Give this another couple of months - I have heard grumbles that it should have been open at the start of the school year. Yes, that would have been logical but recruiting staff, etc, takes time.
8. Phone Box as Library
We have a couple of phone boxes for re-use. Illustrative pictures show them in use in Weymouth and Bicester Village - Melksham following along.
9. Town Council priorities
Full Town Council meetings have been reduced to every 2 months (except an extra has now been added in early October to confirm the neighbourhood plan) and we now have a "task and finish group" of all councillors that meets in closed session to take things forward without "showboating" for the public audience.
10. Water to alottments
Not sure what's happening on this one - main issue related to Audley Road where the water supply is a long way from the far end of the site. Not such an issue over the winter, but it would make sense to sort it out for the summer.
11. Town Centre loos / Pet Larder
This is in negotiation with Wiltshire Council, or should be. I think it fell between the two stools of agreeing to look in principle and actually doing something;
12. Why do things take so long
Things have gotten so complex and where the public purse and an organisation with great aspirations from 15 volunteer councillors requests far more that the limited team we have can easily handle, it's not going to be easy. MTC does not have a permanent Town Clerk nor a deputy, and that has been the situation "de facto" for over a year. We need someone with a strong local knowledge and drive and even when appointed such a person would need significant lead in time, and then time to pick up the backlog - and would need to be able to deliver blunt reality on some aspirations, and yet being motivational. Such people are, though, rare as hen's teeth, especially when they also need a formal qualification in clerking to take on the role. Full credit to our locums - Heather and now Tracy - but their role has been and is very much to keep the ship afloat and off the rocks, and not to captain it to the destinations we wish to reach.
Published Saturday, 14th September 2024
A350 Subway, Legal public art wall?
Art is in the eye of the beholder. What is "street art" and what is graffiti? We have had concern for years at the state of decoration of the subway under the A350 in Melksham. Tired decoration a decade ago was painted over as a blank canvas for new artwork, but that never happened and those white walls have been a temptation for unauthorised and unregulated additions - commonly known by names such as "graffiti" and "tagging" ever since, with a battle between the decorators and Wiltshire Council to keep the subway decent and friendly. Several groups and organisations have proposed ideas and made initial suggestions, but none of those has been carried through to realisation.
I was in Swindon for a meeting yesterday, with an interest in the bus boulevard project and how it's going to work amongst other matters, and was struck by some of the artwork and how inspiring and welcoming it can be. But also very much aware of the maintenance issues associated with it and which have been such a concern that they have held proposals back ("who's going to look after that" and "but it will get damaged / vandalised").
Wiltshire Council are proposing a "Pilot to trial legal walls in Wiltshire - proposed use of A350 underpass" which comes to full Town Council on Monday 23rd September - 6 pages in the agenda pack which has been published unusually early on the Town Council's web site.
It IS a pilot scheme and on that basis something of an experiment. If the artists can take ownership of their own work in, look after it and limit it to areas in such a way that it looks good, it could be a win-win. I do look at the list of requirements placed or suggested by Wiltshire Council - common sense things like keeping it decent, and not personally naming / attacking people, as well as no political posting and more. Those of us who blog or look after online groups are very much aware of these natural restrictions, and also aware of the need to police the restrictions when overstepped - accidentally, or otherwise.
Published Friday, 13th September 2024
Melksham - Housing and Public Transport Development
I "dropped in" as a member of the public on line to the Melksham Without Parish Council meeting last night, via Zoom, as they had several agenda items of interest that align with my strategic planning interest.Land Supply for building - and what it means
An interesting discussion on land supply for development, informed by councillors Alford and Holder from Wiltshire Council. I have found this difficult to follow in the past, but last night explained the system rather better. If you want to build new houses, you need land to be available for them. And that is the "land supply" figure - land approved for development across the county. There are some 18,000 planned homes already approved, which at a build rate of 2,000 per annum would give you - you would think - a nine year "land supply",
But it doesn't work like that. Many of the approved sites are no longer of interest to the developers - reference made to a big Persimmon site in Trowbridge, where economy changes mean that building there in the next few years in unlikely, and the issues is so big that around a half of the sites with planning permission are not included in the official land supply figures. So it's not a nine year land supply - it's less than five years.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) looks ahead, somewhat arbitrarily, to five years and requires local authorities to have a five year land supply (why not 3? - why not 8?), and if the local authorities fail to deliver that, there's a presumption that developers can get planning approval for green fields outside the local plan. In other words, new estates of houses that don't jell with the areas on which they are located, and with less or little thought to supporting infrastructure, but at a greater potential profit to the developers.
So Wiltshire through its efforts have allowed through the planning system something approaching twice the number of new homes wanted - only to find that the house builders aren't happy with that and want to build at location of maximum profit, and they can do that just by saying they're not happy with what they've already been given.
It gets "worse". The new government is in the process of revising housing numbers and the NPPF, and the number of new homes in the county looks like it's up from 2,000 to 3,700 per annum. I am not personally averse to more housing - perhaps even in our own back yard - but it needs to be planned for the future. Which makes the local plan and the neighbourhood plan all that much more important. What legal weight those plans will have, we need to "wait" and see but yet NOT wait - progress and get them finalised with some haste. And at the same time, if we miss deadlines we will still be very powerfully informed to work within the future systems.
Plan for Rail - Wiltshire
MWPC members had taken a look at the Network Rail Wiltshire Plan for Rail and found much to support. The draft report looks forward to the provision of an hourly train service each way at Melksham, facilitated by a loop to allow trains to pass each other on the long single line section between Chippenham and Trowbridge. It looks forward to electrification of the line though Melksham, which makes sense sooner rather than later, encouraged by the heavy freight on the line, to the extension of the services to Bedwyn on to Devizes, and the provision of a Bristol to Oxford service. These latter enabling new stations at Devizes Gateway and Corsham too. A good report, making common sense, with priorities which include - early - improvements through Melksham. I'm delighted to see MWPC having it on their agenda and adding their support.
Last night, the "Plan for Rail" was not linked to land supply and development but yet these two items should not be considered in isolation. Rail is mass transit, and a growing Melksham becomes all the more necessary. We have moved from 3,000 journeys per annum to 70,000 in the last decade, but the figure should be 400,000 even on current population. Move the service to an appropriate and reliable level, and provide joined up transfers (such as a connecting bus) to the station and that can be achieved - not as a goal itself, but as something for the good of the economy of the area and the people who live here. With housing we should expect, we should be planning for at least half a million journeys a year, and that's before you add a full million of through passengers from Swindon and Chippenham to Trowbridge, Westbury and beyond
On service reliability
I have been - embarrassed - to promote rail travel this summer. The timetable offers some excellent opportunities, but trains have not been running to timetable. This weekend just gone was typical for the holiday period, with just seven out of 14 trains each way running and enormous failings with seven cancelled on the day.
All cancellations were explained as "shortage of train crew" ... for which initial responsibility has to be taken by our train operator - "Great Western Railway" - a part of the First Group.
Melksham Without Parish Council had on their agenda - at my request for the Melksham Transport User Group - a request to write to GWR, express severe concern, and request action to return cancellation rates from 50% to less that 2%. It's not just about the weekend just gone - very occasionally there will be a bad day; it's an ongoing issue with short notice cancellations, week after week.
The official letter will be sent. Will it make any difference? It may well, but I doubt it will result in the service being fixed in coming months. It helps put Melksham, officially, on the radar. It reminds First Group that they can't just ignore us as if we were a little village with the occasional person travelling. But then ... the commercial operation of rail services here ends next year with "nationalisation" when the First contract reaches a break point next May, so should they care? We have to be careful how we handle this and ensure we minimise damage caused by appalling unreliability at present, and also make sure that we are partners with rail and government officials for the future.
And in summary
The rail items were moved up the agenda for me - THANK YOU to MWPC for that, and I left the meeting soon after they were covered. Part of me wanted to stay around to listen and watch the rest of the meeting which was fascinating, but having had the items moved up I felt in more polite to leave than to stay.
Published Tuesday, 10th September 2024