Graham Ellis - my blog
Who represents the public transport passenger?
Who represents the public transport passenger - now and in the future? Here in Melksham - as in villages, town and cities all around the United Kingdom, there are groups ranging from those involved with a single bus stop through to national and international ones. 1. Melksham Transport User Group - (link)
2. (rail) West Wiltshire Rail User Group - (link)
3a. TravelWatch SouthWest - (link)
3b. (mostly rail) Great Western Coffee Shop Forum - (link)
4. Campaign for Better Transport - (link)
5. European Passengers' Federation - (link)
It's rather like the rings of an onion
Do we need them all? Does each have its place and function? Yes - I believe it does - or at least there is a need for customer representation at all geographic levels, on current and future services too, and on all modes of transport.
1. At a local level we (the passengers) are keenly aware of travel needs. We have eyes and ears in the community any our inputs on adjustments and changes and issues are intensely valuable to the transport specifiers and operator.
2. Within an economic group of towns, sharing common services, operators and issues, the user and user groups can usefully come together to advocate for and provide a group with shared issues and concerns to work practically with the operators and local transport authorities in a co-ordinated way. Talks can be arranged relevant to this grouping looking at the pattern of services in the area and well supported by the core user team working with the providers to tailor services for everyone.
3a. Services are arranged and provided regionally. Though once you get to that wide an area, "In real life" meetings of user groups become problematic, requiring real dedication from passengers to take days off. But the networking benefits are significant, really knowledgable users will come along to occasional general meeting to speak to and listen to the well briefed representatives of groups at levels 1 and 2.
3b. Also regionally, our own Coffee Shop" forum. But whilst it's geographically regional, it's hardly met in real life - rather the Coffee Shop is open 24/7 to all comers, with interactive message boards for us all to read. Even as I write on Saturday - the quietest day of the week here - there are half a dozen regular friends sign in, in addition to uncounted visitors. Looking back at my analytics from yesterday, we had 211 people visit the Coffee shop (real people, not crawlers) of whom 199 were in the UK
4. Nationally, the Campaign for Better Transport listens to and references passenger user information to central government. It is key work, setting policies and dealing with central government in promoting customer needs there, and also percolating data back down the tree to regional, group and individual passenger groups.
5. Internationally, there are rail standard and operations that apply across Europe even now we are outside the UK, and the European Passengers' Federation provides a co-ordination framework. Last year's annual conference, where delegates learn from right across the continent, took place in Warsaw over two days, and this year's is on 13th and 14th June [2025] in Swindon. Personally, the international experiences of travel are immensely valuable brought back to levels 1, 2 and 3, and I look forward to spending two days - learning - and indeed showing others how we do things - in Swindon.
There are other organisations out there which may claim / suggest they are parallel with those listed above. Some indeed may call "foul" that I have not included them in the simple summary, and they are entitled to that opinion. We also lack in the list above an active organisation that looks to buses - either purely as buses or as buses linked with trains - at level 2. This is a gap where Option 24/7 should have a place - https://option247.uk - something of a gap that needs to be filled.
Footnote - organisations with have a customer / passenger role but which I have left off my mainstream summary largely due to them being more specialist interest or significantly funded / sponsored by governmental or other sponsors which guide their position are ... Railfuture; Bus Users; Transport Focus; Station Friends groups; Community Rail Partnerships; Bath Railway Society; Rail Correspondence and Travel Society; Railchat Forums.
Tax rises? - Melksham Town Council budget and precept
UPDATE - 23:30, 6.1.2025 - precept set with a 13% rise rather than the 16% suggested as a prudent minimum (as I understand it). Some backing for the extra I asked for in my article to give the staff the tools to do and enjoy their jobs, and to have sufficient working capital. More to follow.
This graphic shows you in red the budget totals that Melksham Town Council is working to this year (1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025) and in blue our responsible finance officer's estimates of what the actual figures will be by the end of the year. Congratuations are due to officers who have worked hard to bring in extra grants, showing thet our income will be up on our budget - more money available. However, our expenditure is significiantly up, meaning the Town Council has a shortfall and that the extra expenditure needs to be made up from our general reserve. This is OK for the occasional year, but can't be a routine habit as we would run out of money.
Below is the proposal I'll be making to the Town Council for next year's precept
From: Graham Ellis, an Independent Town Councillor for Melksham South Ward for the public budget and precept discussion meeting to be held at 7 p.m. on Monday 6th January 2025.
Big "thank you" to the staff who have put so much time and effort into considering our accounts and formulating the budget proposal, and to my fellow councillors too with whom I have spent the best part of 12 hours in private session. We have gone through it line by line and reducing costs where we can. There remain just a very few pet projects for next year - most are in the end of this year.
Although the draft budget suggestion is a 16% increase in precept, taking a Band D property up from £3.38 to £3.93 per week, in reality it's simply correcting issue from current and previous years budgets.
As a council, we now have to both claw back overspends in the current year and in addition put a prudent budget into place for next year. We cannot go on spending in excess of our income and depleting a shrinking general reserve. That need to be restored to a level which allows for the running of the council and cash flow though the year.
Expenditure for 2024/25 was budgeted at £1.25 million but is projected to come in at £1.75 million, against a projected total income of £1.3 million. There are some exceptional spends in there. With the majority of Town Council expenditure on staffing, and with the requirement on the Town Council to keep individuals data private, I cannot tell you how that overspend has come about. Indeed, I don't know much myself. I have asked questions, but I am not on the Personnel committee so I am almost as much in the dark as the press and public.
This secrecy is to the extent that I am unable to fulfil the role of properly monitoring how the council spends your taxpayer money. Rather, I have no option but to trust to the good offices of a group that could be thought of as the "star chamber".
I am going to offer you two options tonight. Going with the proposed 16% increase from £175 to £204 per annum. That will give your new council to be elected in May a requirement to spend significantly less on staff next year that this if they are to balance the budget and keep reserve at at a safe level. In May 2021, last time there was a new council, two members of staff were made redundant within weeks. I was one of only two councillor who did not vote to support those redundancies, and I insisted on a recorded vote.
As an alternative, here is my proposal. To pass a budget with a 25% increase to £219 per annum. This can be characterised as correcting a number of years of underfunding. It would provide your new council in May with a solid foundation on which they can work prudently, continue to employ the excellent current staff, and indeed modernise communication systems so that the staff can work much more efficiently. This proposal is not new – it’s along the same lines I proposed at this time last year, and the year before.
My proposal would cost households an extra 29p per week, giving the opportunity of a stable council for the next 4 years. We have some areas of severe deprivation in Melksham, and it is worth pointing out that council tax rebates will mean that the most stretched are unlikely to be asked for the extra 29p per week of my proposal. And the Melksham Town precept would remain significantly lower that that of all other towns in north and west Wiltshire.
29p per week is the equivalent of one mobile phone top-up, per household, per annum.
Are any of my colleagues prepared to second my motion which is intended to provide the next council with a stable restart for Melksham?
Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham - 07974 925 928
https://grahamellis.uk - graham@sn12.net
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
Published Monday, 6th January 2025
How did MTC do with the 2024/25 budget?
Background
At this time last year, we as a Town Council predicted we would spend £225,000 on our central team's salaries, National Insurance and pensions in the year 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025. However, after 9 months out of 12 we have already spent £290,000 and our responsible finance officer suggests we are going to have spent £416,000 by 31st March - that is 85% up on what we allowed for. These figures are open for all to see in the Agenda pack for next Monday's full council meeting that will be making predictions for the year from 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026.
To put the figures in context, in the current year we have charged our electorate £1,047,000 in precept, so central staffing should have cost us 21.5% of our income from that source, but it looks like it will end up costing us 39.8% of the overall budget. The two pie charts above show the predicted incomes and expenditures by the end of this financial year, and that biggest blue wedge on the right hand chart is nearly twice the size it was planned to be.
Several active local residents have written to make enquiries as to how we "got it so wrong". Hmmm - we didn't necessarily get it wrong. At best, a budget is an educated guess and in some years (the year Covid struck is a good example) there are some exceptional issues that blow plans out of the water. However, I simply do not know more than a few bare bones this year to be able to answer residents questions. I can agree with one of my fellow councillors who wrote "anything to do with personnel is strictly confidential and therefor not for public discussion". We are between a rock and a hard place here, having to balance the confidentiality of our staff with the rights of the public to know how their money is being spent. I am not one of the five councillors on the Personnel Committee, and I too can't get answers and have little option but to accept that although elected as a councillor to represent you, I can only make an educated guess as to why we are spending just under 40% of your precept rather than just over the 20% planned on your central staff team.
I can and will move on to some positive thoughts:
1. Although we budget annually, much of our spending such as staffing and the consequences of staffing carries on year after year. At this time last year, Simon Crundell was our mayor, and now Tom Price is our mayor. Both have impressed me in many ways, and you should see the current staffing cost issues as relating largely to matters they inherited. And working within the local and national systems and guidelines we have, I could probably have done no better.
2. Most of our staff, and three of our councillors, have only recently joined the council for the first time. These are some really good people there who have inherited a situation rather than their being any potential thought of responsibility for how we came into this overspend.
3. We have an opportunity in 2025 to move forward for Melksham and we should do so. Even with a precept increase of 16%, we will still be significantly lower than other towns, and we have great opportunities here. That's not to say we (or, rather, the senior councillors and staff who are or have been in the know) should not learn lessons - we/they should - but rather we should move on. We should be setting the precept to restore our depleted reserve (where the extra money came from) and also to move forward for the town. Last year - 3 years too late - we set out a strategy which I commend to you, and to the electorate on 1st May for the next four years. You can read it further down my blog - {{here}}
Published Thursday, 2nd January 2025
I'm looking forward to 2025
January to April - I remain on the Town Council. I take on roles and challenges for the rewards they bring, and those rewards include things like being able to make a positive difference, friendships and learning. Yes, some of that has been achieved but well below my own personal (and critical) standards. The public - the customers - the electorate are lovely; even on social media, where one of my council colleagues told me not to risk engaging, I am more than comfortable. I will be delighted to be able to step away from some aspects of council life, and concentrate much more again on things that make a bigger positive difference, enduring friendships even with those from whom my views differ, and where I can continue to learn but in a much more effective way.May onwards - I will be travelling on and off, some of the time with Lisa. Returning to some great places found across Europe, and finding some more too. We have Interrail passes, but as yet no reservations - just ideas that will jell slightly before we travel. We do have a friend coming to look after the house and hounds while we're both away, and UK life will not stop because one or both of us are away. We are unlikely to cruise this year - but have a reservation already for a fortnight in 2026. Just because I or we are travelling does not put us out of touch - it never has, since we met in 1996!. Technology has come forward a long way since the mad dash to the Internet Cafe in Ketchikan; these days a normal phone call or an email reaches us All meetings (except council ones (!)) can be attended and even presentations given via Zoom or Teams.
Relieved of the many hours of unrewarding council volunteering, and sleepless nights spent worrying over things, I will have much more time to be effective in the fields I specialise in - public transport stuff, with a view and bias towards planning for the future with environmental issues as our towns grow. And with a special consideration of current and future passengers. 2025 is set to be a year of great risks, but also great opportunities as a new order in UK public transport, beaconed under the new government, comes to pass or perhaps not.
Online, the First Great Western "Coffee Shop" Passenger Forum I helped found in 2007 is still up and running - indeed I have made major updates in the last few days and it' now fit for the next five years at https://www.greatwesternrailway.infoas well as https://www.firstgreatwestern.info and it can now be "flexed" to another name if appropriate.
Various updates to follow on:
* The Melksham Transport User Group (for the Melksham area), first meeting with officers on 2nd and 3rd January is we look forward to the year where I am chair until the AGM at least. https://mtug.org.uk
* The West Wiltshire Rail User Group (for the five towns of West Wiltshire, including Melksham) where I am on the Committee with responsibility for arranging the public meetings. https://wwrug.org.uk
* TravelWatch SouthWest (for the counties of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) where I was voted back onto the Board of Directors after an absence of a few years in December. https://travelwatchsouthwest.org.
The Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan, where I have been a somewhat shallow vice chair, should come to referendum later this year. Because my place on the steering group is to represent the council, I don't expect to be there at the finish, but I will be cheering from the sidelines. With future growth planned in our area, this plan is key to us in Melksham having some say in our future and the work that had gone into the plan, mostly behind the scenes, has to be believed. A big THANK YOU to all of those who have put in far more than I have!
I will be continuing this Melksham Blog beyond the May elections but you will continue to see it slanting away form pure council stuff and be much more the interested resident - https://grahamellis.uk/blog.html. We'll be seeing where we go with the Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall via https://www.fomah.org.ukand with the Melksham Environment Group where I look after the web presence at https://mkmeg.org.uk.
On Social Media, my own Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/graham.ellis.melksham/ and I am and will remain active there. An accident and over-secured recovery meant that I lost my old page last summer, but in under six months I have welcomed back over 100 friends, and also regained access and where appropriate moderation and admin capabilities. Again some thinning out as the Town Council changes in May.
I have let Twitter fade away from me, do very little with WhatsApp, am not into Instagram, TicToc, Youtube, Telegram or Snapchat, Pinterest or Reddit. There are only so many hours in the day. Two others which are important - LinkedIn, where I a very great number of connections but have been far less active during my time as a councillor - my profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/wellho/ - and BlueSky which is fairly new, and where you can find me - and will probably find me much more - at https://bsky.app/profile/grahamellis.uk
As we enter January 2025, there seem to be a number of deep consultations under way that started just before Christmas and close in the next five weeks. Part of me says they all deserve throughout reading and response. And another part of me takes a look at up to 350 pages of beautifully presented data and asks "would they really make changes to this based on my input" and I suspect not - are they just looking to tick a box at this stage? There is much good in some of these documents and I can already spot some things that "I could have written that".
One area I am aware that I have lacked time is Wiltshire Bus work. The Option 24/7 project / name at https://option247.uk has been somewhat quiet over the last 18 months - I am the only one of the initial "gang of four" living in Wiltshire. But that said, significant improvements have been made in the direction we have pressed for over many years and perhaps I see the groundwork of our philosophy coming to fruition, together with some excellent people on the team at both Wiltshire Council and at Faresaver. It's a long way from where we started eight years ago looking at bus service losses. Delighted to see the bus service improvements (at some of the very times of the week we advocated) and look forward to helping them succeed and carry on developing.
-- Graham
Looking forward to 2025 - and still around and happy to hear from you.
Published Wednesday, 1st January 2025
Web site update - Great Western Coffee Shop
7 p.m. on Saturday 28th December 2024This A progress report on the engineering work I have been doing on the "Great Western Coffee Shop" forum which has been tuning on my servers for the last 18 years. Intended as an 18 week project when it was set up in 2007, it is overdue for upgrade - it is looking very dated, doesn't fit well on the small screens people use on their phones these days, and uses the old protocols which set off all sorts of alarm bells in virus checkers. So there was a lot to be done! I closed the door in the early hours, completed a download (67Gbytes), updated the status page at http://status.firstgreatwestern.info for any members who had missed the alerts that had been going out for that week.
* I have moved the domain name (what the site is called) to a new, more modern server that should be good for the next 5 years. It has more capacity (as the Coffee Shop has grown) and responds to the newer https protocol. It's also shared with other more recent domain names so we can move on no manner who is running our trains.
* The old forum software is so old it cannot be easily upgraded, and needs to run on an older version of underlying software, so I have left it where it was. And I have set up the modern server as a proxy server, facing the internet and acting as gatekeeper for the more mature server. I have used a balancer, so should we grow in the future or add resource greedy code (there are various temptations!) I can simply add another server. Rather like a doctor's surgery with a single receptionist adding another doctor. Again, this should be good for five years.
The forum software by far the most complex and oldest application on the server, and also the one that gets far and away more accessed on our server that everything else on there put together. So this re-engineering has been the bit task that I allowed 48 hours for - delighted to have go to where I am after 16 hours of work.
The following remain to be done over the next few days - the more major stuff starting at dawn tomorrow. No need to stop the service - the big structural change has happened and your posts are safe and into our backup systems again
1. The LIKE system does not like (!) the new front and back room setup - I didn't write it with that in mind and it needs fixing. There are issues with smiley faces too, and the post editor
2. The document mirror (2000 transport industry .pdfs totalling 10Gb needs a lick of paint to make it work again. It's vital stuff but not in particularly frequent use
3. There are odd bugs from the move, such as setting up your avatar
4. The forum support pages and indexes all need relinking, adjusting and testing. Lots of stuff there - maps, fare manuals, usage statistics and probably a dozen other things I will think of in the morning, and there will be an ongoing debugging and cleaning up process
5. Over coming months and throughout 2025, you'll see extra facilities added to the Coffee Shop, and the software becoming far more phone friendly. We have grown this year - from around 800 to 900 posts a month last winter to over 1500 posts a month in the last quarter so we must be doing something right (or the railways something wrong, which is another story)
Published Saturday, 28th December 2024
MTC draft budget 2025/26 - some key considerations
A question asked of me on 24th December: "Why is the proposed Melksham Town precept proposed to rise by 17%, which is far in excess of inflation, next year?". The question is based on the draft 2025/26 budget which is included in the agenda pack recently posted "for decision" on 6th January 2025.Some background - the precept for 2024/25 is £175.69 for a "Band D" house and scaled down for smaller and up for larger houses. Based on the number of houses that brings in £1.047 million. for 2025/26, the requirement with the suggested financial plans is £1.217 million, which is a precept of £204.11 - an annual increase of £28.42, or a rise of a 16.18% rise, or a rise of 55p per week.
The current consumer price inflation index in 2.6%, and the retail price index is 3.6%. Minimum wage rates increase for next year by 6.7%. So it's a good question to ask why a much greater percentage increase is being put to the Town Council.
Here are some reasons I have picked out for the new precept to be as it is proposed
See here for my personal summary / views
1. I am going to characterise the proposed rise not so much as a rise higher than it should be, but rather a rise that should have come in previous years (when rises, if any, were well below inflation rates). We have been spending money set aside in reserves, and if we continue on in the same pattern, we will go broke. Page 28 of the agenda suggests we will end the 2024/25 year having spent £448,475 more than we receive during the year, and clearly that is something that cannot go on year by year. Yes, we have reserves and they are now below the minimum level recommended by the local government association.
If reserves get "raided" for continuing spend, you have a double issue. Not only do you have to find money to make good the shortfall from the current year, but you also have to find the money for the same thing next year. Ooops.
I should point out that I voted against the budget for this current year (I was the only one to do so) to avoid this exact issue. There is no satisfaction in my having to write "told you so" as I wish I had been wrong.
2. Central Staffing costs this year (page 1) were budgeted at £225,000 but look like they are coming in at £416,000 (ouch!). Some of the extra costs of employment are one-offs, but the proposal for 2025/26 is £384,500 which is an increase over last year's budgeted figure of no less than 71%. Only members of the Personnel Committee are privy to all the details, but higher employer NI contributions, more staff, and better paid staff are factors.
Legal and professional fee are also part of our corporate costs. We budgeted £7,000 for them this year, but I note we have spent £39,705 so far this year (ouch!). Good news for next year in that we are told that we only play to spend £10,000 on this - but that's still another overspend of £32,000 - 357% on top of what we had planned to spend. (page 2)
3. Elections in 2025/26 are paid for by the Town Council - estimated at £20,000 against a 2024/25 budget of £8,000 - that's up 150%. (Page 3)
4. The Town Council owns 31, Market Place and charges a commercial rent for it (which helps keep the precept low). However, work needs to be done on it urgently - landlord responsibilities - at an estimated cost of £30,000 versus just £1,000 in the current year. (Page 14)
5. The Sensory garden was not budgeted this year, but it is projected that £14,000 will be spent before April and another £11,000 next year. This year's money needs to come from (and will deplete) reserves, and next year's needs to come from somewhere. (Page 19)
6. The CCTV, on which we have spent £32,000 was a zero budget line and has been funded from reserves (page 21)
7. Assembly Hall staffing costs are planned to come in 7% above the actual for this year. But then we are also predicting 25% rise in income from live shows (pages 23 and 25). So I don't see this rise above general inflation (but in line with employment costs) as being contributory towards the large proposed precept rise.
8. Play equipment needs replacing from time to time, and I am concerned that the sink fund contribution for this which is £25,000 this year has been zeroed for 2025/26. It looks like it could be storing up problems for the future. (page 28)
9. Over coming months, many projects come to fruition. Year to date spend is £1.168 million but that is projected to rise to £1.758 million. Some of that coms from other income such as Solar Farm money which we receive each year and other grants, but never the less our spending rate will be in excess of our income, and in order to remain solvent the income over which councillors have control - the precept - will need to rise next year to refill the reserves and ensure that the new council election on 1st May does not have a struggle to make ends meet in its first year.
10. New / expanded expenditure for 2025/26 includes £10,000 for a civic event (page 19) and "Proms in the Park" as a separate item at an extra £10,000. Line items which were in the 2024/25 budget but which are not in the 2025/26 budget include £10,000 for tree planting (page 16) and a reduction of small grants to help seed new organisations by £6,000 to £10,000; major grants to 4 Youth, the TIC, the Food and River Festival and to fund an Age UK project worker totalling over £30,000 continue. (page 4). As it comes to fruition, Neighbourhood Plan costs for 2025/26 are reduced from around £20,000 to around £2,000
11. It should be noted that the costs and reserve held for the East of Melksham Community Centre are not covered by the precept, but rather by developer contributions and do not directly effect the precept. Similarly, future significant work to the Blue Pool would probably be funded via the public works loan board and is not considered to be a part of the 2025/26 budget. But in both cases I would expect substantial central staff team time to be required, which will be paid for as part of the precept / staffing line referred to in item 2 in my list
The bar chart that appears alongside this article puts some of the figures into context to help you see the big "movers and shakers"; each column, though, is not directly comparable with the neighbouring columns and of necessity only big headline items are shown.
Drawing some conclusions
In my view, the precept should have risen in previous years and the proposed hike is partly to catch up with what we have already spent and to keep us safely solvent. Melksham has far and away the lowest Town precept in the area, and even with a 16% rise it will remain the lowest. The proposed rise this year is because we are catching up on several years of underfunding and need to both make a realistic balanced budget and replenish reserves - so it's a double whammie this year.
The majority of the money spent by the Town Council is on staffing (salaries, our ongoing costs of employment, and in the departure of staff and the arrival of new team members). The majority being spent on staff is a common feature of most councils, though in my view the way we have worked means we spend a lot more than I would like on departures and arrivals - I would prefer to have the same people in post next year as we have this year. I would like to see the money saved on a reduced staff turnover invested into working systems and practices that help them work more effectively and enjoy their jobs more. The time wasted (IMHO) in answering the same question and tracking the same issue has to be seen to be believed, and is frustrating to all concerned - staff, councillors, contractors and public.
A surprisingly small proportion of Melksham Town Council expenditure is on project work as opposed to staffing and general operation, and a small amount of extra money in that direction would allow massively more to be done (especially with improved working practise).
My view is that the rise proposed is a necessary catch-up and coverage of increased staffing cost and just like last year (sorry - I am a well worn record - see https://grahamellis.uk/blog1118.html ) we should be adding between 10p and 15p per household per week on top of the proposal to effectively fund out team's work rather that finding ourselves next summer with some real progress from the next few months, but back into another cycle of inefficient frugality imposed on the next council.
It should be noted that although the current Town Council sets the precept, it will be next one you'll be electing in May that will make use of the funds collected, and should they wish it is within their remit to make significal changes to how those funds are spent.
It has been very strongly pointed out to me that views expressed in an article such as this are mine as a councillor, but I am not speaking for Melksham Town Council. If you have any questions, please do ask me or if you want them answered official prior to the 6th January decision please email them to the Town Clerk or Committee Clerk on their return on 2nd January for am answer during "public participation". Personally given answers by me are required to be limited as much of the discussion has been in closed door sessions - your elected representatives working for you using the authority delegated to them via previous elections and the democratic process.
The full public agenda report pack (68 pages) may be downloaded from here on the Town Council web site
Published Thursday, 26th December 2024
Happy Christmas. (And some more substantive stuff)
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. A massive "thank you" to everyone who I have been able to work constructively with or help through 2024, in both my Town Councillor role and wider. Our Christmas
For the first time in several years, we will see Christmas Day in alone at home. Our wider guests / family from Ukraine were with us in something of a rushed arrangement when war there broke out and have now moved on to the USA - we are still in touch and see their smiling faces and hear their news via social media. We miss them, and although this was a happy, busy place as they buzzed in and out at all hours to work, etc, their lives were very much on hold and it was very much a step in all of our lives rather than anything to be long-lasting.
Christmas Day itself seems to have lacked a pattern for me for as long as I can remember, with the unusual happening that day that would not happen any other day of the year. Memories back to my teens of cycling 12 miles into London and around a car-less Trafalgar Square, through to a Christmas Dinner fry up in a year before we moved to Melksham Town, and then a more conventional diet with Gavin Owen helping at the Assembly Hall, of which fond memories, including of Dad, no longer with us (and the sadness of that is why I would have been happy to help, but not sit down to eat) this year.
So - this year - fairly quiet at home. But not alone. We have family; none of them live in the Melksham area, and with the complexities of modern relationships all of them have multiple places they are pulled to go to, and we do not exert that pull. Away from family, though, we have a bigger dining table than for just the two of us and we will not be alone for Christmas lunch, and we are delighted - I am cooking (so it requires a special bravery to be hear and eat the outcome) - and the meal and afternoon will, I'm sure, be lively conversation.
This is my Council blog. Over Christmas and the New Year, Melksham Town Council activity shuts down to give both staff and your volunteer councillors a good break from all the hard work they put in, much unseen, for the rest of the year. Issues on which councillors differ from one another, or are difficult to progress within the wider council make the headlines but there are so many areas where the wider team works together. Personally, I am around all over the holiday period and you are welcome to get in touch and I will do what I can to help, but that should not be expected of any of my colleagues - personal situation noted above which gives you an idea of why I can be available.
Looking ahead a steer to more on public transport
A great deal of my time is spent on public transport matters ... it has been for many years. In 2005 I asked "should we be saving the train service at Melksham?" and we have been through some low times, with just a couple of passengers (if even that many) joining a single carriage train a couple of times every day. Engineering works over Christmas and into the New Year (right through to 23rd January) prepare the end of the line at Westbury for more robust continuing operations into the future, and for 2025 and thereafter. Into 2025 and beyond, up to and after my term as a Town Councillor, I'll still be active - and indeed freed up to be more effective and active - in my work by a passenger, for more passengers.
Part of my public transport work has been via the "Great Western Railway Coffee Shop" Forum which I set up early in 2007. It was intended to be a shorter term project - 18 weeks or 18 months perhaps, but here we are 18 years later and it remains busy with 82 members logged in within the last 24 hours (even on Christmas Eve) and 1200 posts so far this month. But the initial plan was light on software upgrade plans and it's now very long in the tooth - so long that it's becoming increasingly hard to keep it running into the future. So next weekend - that's on 28th and 29th December 2024 - the forum will be closed for engineering works to be ready at its 18th year birthday for coming years as we move (I have no crystal ball though) from "Great Western Railway" to "Great British Railways" and here in Melksham we move from a Town parish with a population of 18,100 to a contiguous urban area perhaps 30,000 to 32,000 in perhaps a decade from now.
Public Transport is very complex indeed and should work without passengers needing to know all about it. We as passengers should be able to trust in the systems and those people who specify, plan and run them. Rather sadly, whilst we have a large number of experts in the systems who are utterly professional, and indeed put their hearts an souls into going beyond what should be expected of them, we still have systems and indeed some structure and their teams who make the systems less than ideal, and indeed the system can stagger along in spite of problems, with passengers and wannabe passengers having little or no say in how it's done for them, and no easy way to find out let alone make constructive suggestions.
For 2025, I will personally be active with
* The Melksham Transport User Group - covering the Melksham Community Area
* The West Wiltshire Rail User Group - covering the five towns of West Wiltshire
* TravelWatch SouthWest - covering the South West of England, Bournemouth / Swindon / Cheltenham all the way to Penzance
I have sufficient knowledge and track record of public transport to be able to be positive and effective in working with professionals in the bus and rail industry, and also in helping inform users (current and potential) and it is so important for our environmental and economic future that we get it right for our future. Unusually, I drove through Melksham on Saturday morning - nose to tail and but for the need to carry it would have been quicker to walk. With 32,000 residents rather than 18,000, how on earth will we cope?
The Melksham Transport Group committee met on Thursday of last week, and a couple of us met several dozen regular passengers at the station yesterday (Monday) morning. I am meeting with the treasurer and membership secretary on 2nd and 3rd January, and the whole committee meets on 16th January
The West Wiltshire Rail User Group committee met on Wednesday of last week. We have set committee and public date meetings for 2025. For the public meetings we are awaiting confirmation of the availability of the hall where we meet for next year's meetings
TravelWatch SouthWest held its AGM on Friday of last week, and I was re-elected for a three year term to the Board. Much of our activity is online and I expect to be very busy in the New Year.
Multiple transport consultations are open at present which include Melksham but a Christmas Eve blog is perhaps not the best place or time for me to get technical. Also in the New Year, please expect a significant focus on bus work with activity on "Option 24/7".
And summarising and a few more looks forward
December seems each year to be a very busy time at the Town Council with a great deal of the business (including but not limited to the budget work I have commented on elsewhere) being in private / on a need to know basis. Come January, it will be much more back to normal and I will continue to serve as a Town Councillor with appropriate behaviour - respecting the privacy and confidential information which I have, but reporting in public on what we do and highlighting the excellent work done by other team members - staff and councillors. And that approach will continue right through to when the council is dissolved prior to the next elections on 1st May 2025. There are a lot of projects I would expect to come to fruition over coming months.
One of the projects I do expect to see move forward over the next three months is the purchase of the Blue Pool by Melksham Town Council and indeed there is an extra full council meeting in late January (27th, I believe) to take plans for the future use of the Blue Pool and Assembly Hall forward. Since this is a Town Council meeting, it is likely that talk will be dominated by councillors unless (after initial public participation) the chair choses to open the floor. A great deal of work done by The Friends and others is available to councillors but was done so long ago that it has been forgotten, and almost all of the staff now involved are more recent recruits who will need to read back into it. This will be an interesting meeting, especially as the public sentiment for the hall far outweighs the snetiment felt for it by some existing councillors, and it will be doubly interesting due to the need for councillors hoping to be re-elected to support popular votewinning views, and to be see to be doing so.
As I finish on the Town Council at the next election, I will have much more time available for effective transport and longer term planning (such as the Neighbourhood Plan advocacy for the public vote) work, without the need to campaign for re-election in those general role (yes, MTUG and WWRUG will both have committee elections so I need to be sensible enough there to be re-selected!).
And ... I do not forget ... openness, equality, environment ... as my key strategic areas and policies. As they were in April 2021 in campaigning for election to the Town Council. They have not always been easy of made me popular. It is much easier and more comfortable to do things behind closed doors, for the vocal few including your immediate circle, and with a view to short term gain without consideration of the long term and wider implications ... just not my style to take than route.
Ending as I started - a big "thank you" to everyone who has helped make 2024 effective and enjoyable. I'm around all though the winter holiday period, and wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year and look forward to working, and relaxing, with you next year.
Published Tuesday, 24th December 2024
Melksham - Will we have elections in 2025?
From Sky New last week:"Some local elections could be delayed by up to a year, says Angela Rayner Labour has vowed to give local areas greater powers - which could involve merging and closing some local councils, meaning elections will not go ahead while the reorganisation takes place."
From The BBC also last week:
The government announced plans on Monday for every English region to have an elected mayor to oversee housing, planning, education and other services. The leaders of Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire councils welcomed the move, having previously announced plans for a Heart of Wessex authority.
Parish and Unitary Ward boundaries are redrawn (or considered) from time to time, and this was done for the 2021 local elections in 2021. We moved from North, South and Cental to North, South, East and Forest in Melksham Town, and proposals to bring the whole contiguous developed area within Melksham Town were rejected. I do not see any evidence of suggestion of a further review process in the short term.
Where does this leave us with elections here in Melksham?
My view is that it is highly unlikely that the Unitary elections scheduled for 1st May will be deferred. The only way that could happen is if all elections at district and unitary level are paused while the system is reviewed, even though Wiltshire is already under the new system. So these elections will go ahead on 1st May 2025.
And my view is that (barring another national crisis such as covid) the Parish election to Melksham Town and Melksham Without will also go ahead on 1st May, on existing boundaries.
The Neigbourhood Plan wends it way through a process of being proven and is likley to come to a public referendum in the autumn of 2025. With the massive husing growth required by government, this local plan which will have legal force after it has been approved will allow us to do more locally, and indeed gain more from developer contributions for local projects.
At some stage there may be an election for a Heart of Wessex Mayor - I would guess that might be in May 2026.
Your next chance to elect a new police and crime commissioner comes - I think - in May 2029, and your MP is in place until a general election is next called, probably also in early 2029. That will be a busy year as we'll be on the next round of parish and unitary elections too!
There are no longer election in Melksham to a district council (as that is now a part of Wiltshire Council) nor to the European Parliament (an MEP) as we're no longer part of the European Union. It is possible that we may have a devolved regional parliament at some time (like the Welsh, Scots and Northern Irish do) and that would be another election, potentially within the timeframe of this article.
Published Saturday, 21st December 2024
Melksham Trains - some questions addressed
Answering Questions asked on Facebook. Questions in bold, my comments in regular text.Background - far too many trains are cancelled at Melksham, and when even one is there isn't another alomg just behind it - it's usually hours later - so it's a serious issue. This blog addresses some of the issues raised in answer to a public question of Facebook a couple of days ago.
Over Christmas and for most of January, enngineering works a Westbury will decimate our services - but this IS notified ahead and alternative road tranport will be provided. Not as good (slower, connections fail, need to change at Chippenham, bumpier, don't take dogs or cycles or heaviest luggage, not real time tracked, no on board loos) but at least e have something. And your rail ticket IS valid on the Faresaver buses x34 to Chippenham and Trowbridge on the 271/2/3 to Bath if you're headed West. Train services resume in full on 24th January, though folowed by a couple more weekend closures to adjust new tracks as they bed in.
Thanks for the update and the work you do Graham Ellis please do continue your work making the case for a consistent and reliable rail service for Melksham
My pleasure (really, it is!) meeting so many wonderful people, helping inform them (and to pass comments back to the service providers to keep them informed and aware and perhaps reactive too to customer desires and issues). I am currently a Town Council in Melksham - I am not standing for re-election in May but I WILL be continuing in my rail passenger activities - MTUG, WWRUG, TWSW and the Coffee Shop forum. In many ways, the Town Council role has proven to be a yoke around my neck (electorate wonderful, mind you) and I will be able to be far more positively effective into the future.
You are utterly correct to empathise consistency and reliability as they are key issues for which a case is to be made. Just thank goodness that we do NOT have other overarching concerns such as safety.
As a regular weekday user (for commuting) there is, as you say, real impact when trains are cancelled.
Too true ... 85% of trains are running on the day, and for one-off users that may work. For commuters though it's three journeys in a fortnight that get cancelled. IF there is an alternative easily and hassle free to hand, OK - but that is rare and for Melksham the next train is 120 minutes later rather than the 20 minutes it would be elsewhere.
Employers rely on staff and in many roles it's vital to have you there on time. Jobs can be lost on the cancellation (and not able to get there till much later) if it happens more than very, very rarelt.
I’m interested to see how the proposed TOC approval for Go-Op shakes up the service from the end of next year. That’s clearly not going to fix the issues now…
Go-op have a license allowing them to run services from December 2025 which much be made use of within a year of that date. Best bet - if they manage it - would be for a service to start in May 2026. There are many different ways it could go - not only for Go-op but for the services on the line and for Melksham ranging from the wonderful (more trains filling gaps) to the distaster (GWR gives way for Go-op who fail to deliver).
The ongoing works I understand are for point work and signalling? Do these improvements then lead to faster and more frequent services and updated timetable?
No. They are said to be for improved reliability at Westbury; that has not been the biggest concern, but if equipment is near life end then it makes sense to do it before it becomes yet another problem to add to the ones we have. The works do NOT include another platform available at Westbury nor any extra tracks.
When Melksham is used as a diversion can the class 800’s not have SDO programmed in? Would they not already have the route in the train control systems and thus when on diversionary working can stop and open relevant doors for short platforms? (No doubt it’s been asked)
It has indeed been asked on a number of occasion.
Melksham has not been in the IET (that's classes 800 and 802) database so the trains haven't been programmed to be able to stop here in normal operation - for sure in an emergency I would expect them to be able to open a door. From time to time new stations are added to the database - for example Freshford, Bruton and Pilning have been added and I caught my first (electric!) departure from Pilning a couple of months ago.
The answer to request to add it in and stop at Melksham at times the local service is not running to allow diverted long distance expresses has consistency met with three reasons why not:
1. It will cost [a lot] of money and not be in anyone's budget
2. The diverted trains go through at different times to the local services normally call so it would be no use
3. The diverted trains are carrying a lot of people between big important places and they are already delayed. Adding a stop at Melksham would mean we would have to stop them at Trowbridge and Chippenham too and three extra stops would add too long to the time taken
We have pointed out that it also costs money to put of replacement buses, that with warning (or even without) people can plan to the changes and would appreciate the options, and that the long distance expresses typically divert through Bristol so the extra 12 to 15 minutes would only be on semi-fasts for passengers from places like Castle Cary and Westbury to London.
Good to report - it seems we are being heard. The front 5 doors are being added to the database. It then needs to be tested, "stop" boards checked and perhaps aded, a risk assessment study done and when those things are completed it will be a possible option.
No change over the Christmas / January shutdown, as there are no IETs coming through anyway and it will take much longer. But I do suspect that sometime in the next year to 18 months we may see this tested at least.
What plans do GwR have in general, to manage the lack of weekend working across the network? Mondays are often also being impacted with lack of rolling stock/ still not enough crew and colleagues have often reported how Sunday travel on GWR is rather ‘hit and miss’.
There are three matters ...
* Lack of appropriate trains
* Lack of appropriate staff
* Lack of open line due to engineering.
Lack of trains ... GWR are very tight on trains - however they are expecting to have class 175 in use in Devon and Cornwall from May, phasing out the remaining "Castle Class" sets and also allowing a whole host of other replacements, some of which release class 158 from the Barnstaple line to the Bristol area which should relive the situation. Even before that, I have not heard of as many problems of late - perhaps because new source have been found for parts that come from Ukraine or those supply lines are back. Longer term ... I have been today on GWR's battery train and there's a long story there.
Lack of open lines ... There's a lot more health and safety that there use to be so lines are closed more to protect the workforce. More work is done as things get ever more complex. And at times, cost wins over passenger convenience - much easier to do one closure of 48 hours than 6 nights of 8 hours each. Add to that the extra expense of weekend staff, and lots more passengers at the weekend meaning that these days engineering may be done midweek as it's just as quiet. No easy solution here - and the line through Melksham tends to get it "in the neck" as not only is it closed for its own engineering, but also if work is being done between Westbury and Reading, of between Trowbridge and Bath. Some hope here if IETs can stop (when Trowbridge / Bath is closed, those trains do stop already).
Lack of staff ... this is the biggie for cancellations on the day (the worst type for passengers) and the total story you are told seems to differ depending on who's telling who! My view / interpretation is that GWR have enough staff - IF the are not off on training / off sick, if they are happy to be working overtime to a sensible level, and if there is no train disruption, special workings or engineering which calls for more crew / different route knowledge Problem is that this perfect railway only exists on occasional days. When it doesn't, there's a scramble.
At present, there's a reluctance to work much overtime and there has been for s while. Goodwill to work overtime has been lost by the long and very sore strikes for multiple years. In the summer, drivers and train managers wanted time with family. In the autumn, pay packets with back pay as part of the settlement have meant they don't need to work as much, and who wants to work extra on the run up to Christmas? There is much talk of 60% of drivers not having Sunday in their working week. I suspect that the other 40% are very heavily programmed in to fill the Sunday gaps at present, leaving staff shortages on the other days of the week too - spread the misery!
Route knowledge costs money and needs to be renewed / kept up to date too, and so there's a reluctance to invest in wide knowledge. This means lots more crew changes along the way than there used to be. The line through Melksham is interesting in that it's a diversion route and route knowledge for long distance drivers is maintained on the 12:17 round trip from Westbury amongst others - with staff coming off the Paddington to Exeter train with a 20 minute swap at Westbury. Anything goes wrong / delay on the main line and - oops - cancelation at Melksham and a 2 hour gap! And it's so operationally easy simply to cancel the round trip; the folks who make the decision (and with the cards they are dealt, they probably have no choice on the day) are far, far away in a control room and not having to support the passengers with ruined journeys.
Services from Trowbridge and Chippenham tend to more consistent and less impacted during the week. Both of these stations can and do offer an alternative route for commuting (if you can get to them). And I agree that of something goes wrong, and safe to use the roads, GWR have to get you home; I’ve had some excellent support at Chippenham when this has happened, as you say you need to ask but stations staff have always been very helpful
Indeed - I must conclude with an appreciation of the staff we as passengers meet on the ground, day to day who are a great bunch. At times of perturbation, though, they may not be able to be around, and if they are they may lack the tools to be effective.
I have written very long already - but happy to fill you in further.
Published Tuesday, 17th December 2024
Not on the street but still here
My first blog in nearly a fortnight. Am I away? Yes, and no.I am not away - there has been so much going on. Much has been visible of social media and to the wider circle of friends in other arenas. Much I am obliged to hide from the public concerning things like next year's council budget and council tax level, where an enormous amount of time has been spent in minute detail so that what comes to a public council meeting will only need to be rubber stamped. You may consider this work behind closed doors to be less that open - I do - but I respect the rules and work within them. And some of it (prior to the next paragraph) has been out and about and doing things in relation to Bert and Darragh which aren't headlines or campaign opportunities.
I am away - I have pulled my back and am now laid up; just about managing the stairs once or twice a day. But that to some extent is an efficiency - letting me off Monday's budget meeting that was briefly published then taken private, and allowing me to Zoom in to Economic Development though only as a member of the public (officers can attend their roles remotely, but councillors cannot!). And I will be attending a meeting with GWR remotely today.
Being less physically available than normal does not really make me less available to residents; if I know you're popping round ahead of time, you're welcome - though knocking on the door unannounced this week is likely to frustrate us both as I'll struggle to get to the door before you give up. Drop ins are rare anyway, since I am normally out and about so much that people usually check with me ahead.
Published Wednesday, 11th December 2024