Melksham Oak Community School, Melksham, Wiltshire
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-12-07 00:15:53 - Graham Ellis
Melksham is growing, with 750 new homes approved, to be constructed in the very near future - just over the back, behind our home. And there's a new secondary school already being built, to be known as "Melksham Oak" and replacing the George Ward, which is tired and worn out. "Melksham Oak" is going to be just a few hundred yards down the road from us. Access from the town will be either the A365 from "The Spa" Roundabout - which hasn't got a footpath - or along the cul-de-sac in front of our home, carrying on along a path to join the main road.
You can probably imagine me saying "Not In My Back Yard", but actually I'm not - even though the construction crane is clearly visible from our lounge, for Melksham will benefit from growing, and it does deserve a new school and other new facilities too - much better for it to grow and be a vibrant town than to moulder slowly away as some poor backwater - and that IS a danger we need to guard against with the new Wiltshire Council seeming having an orchestrated marketing line of "Salisbury, Trowbridge and Chippenham" even before they officially exist.
But although I'm not a NIMBY, I do share concerns that have been expressed with regard to access to the school. For sure, it's opposite the big new extension to the Bowerhill area, but only a small proportion of the pupils will walk in from there - the rest have to go through this narrow gullet on the A365, and I can anticipate some pretty big increases in traffic at school time, but perhaps I'm being too much the profit of doom - we'll see; this may just be a minor issue after all.
Yesterday, I walked along the road up to "The Oak" and took a few pictures; some accompany this article, and others may be found here.
Melksham is growing, with 750 new homes approved, to be constructed in the very near future - just over the back, behind our home. And there's a new secondary school already being built, to be known as "Melksham Oak" and replacing the George Ward, which is tired and worn out. "Melksham Oak" is going to be just a few hundred yards down the road from us. Access from the town will be either the A365 from "The Spa" Roundabout - which hasn't got a footpath - or along the cul-de-sac in front of our home, carrying on along a path to join the main road.
You can probably imagine me saying "Not In My Back Yard", but actually I'm not - even though the construction crane is clearly visible from our lounge, for Melksham will benefit from growing, and it does deserve a new school and other new facilities too - much better for it to grow and be a vibrant town than to moulder slowly away as some poor backwater - and that IS a danger we need to guard against with the new Wiltshire Council seeming having an orchestrated marketing line of "Salisbury, Trowbridge and Chippenham" even before they officially exist.
But although I'm not a NIMBY, I do share concerns that have been expressed with regard to access to the school. For sure, it's opposite the big new extension to the Bowerhill area, but only a small proportion of the pupils will walk in from there - the rest have to go through this narrow gullet on the A365, and I can anticipate some pretty big increases in traffic at school time, but perhaps I'm being too much the profit of doom - we'll see; this may just be a minor issue after all.