Melksham House / Melksham Campus - Seniors Input Sought
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-11-12 13:20:45 - Graham EllisI ate lunch at Melksham House yesterday - an excellent traditional "meat and 2 veg" meal, at a very affordable price, and clearly very popular - there were perhaps 30 or 40 people eating, most of them fairly clearly retired and out meeting with their friends at their social centre. Truly, Melksham House is already providing a community service, and so how appropriate it is that the community campus will be located there to continue to provide such a service.
Clearly great changes ARE planned, with the purchase by Wiltshire Council, and plans to build afresh on the site, closing up to 8 other buildings around Melksham. Alas, at time that great changes are in the offing are also time that there are great worries too, about individual services and elements and how people will be effected. There are natural worries - but with a strategy of providing a community service where a community service already exists, it's natural (and intended) for the Melksham House's existing clientele to be fully included.
Brian Warwick, of the Melksham and District 55+ Senior's Forum has asked for this flyer to be circulated to help promote an "Open for All" event / discussion and Workshop on the Campus. Brian's on the Shadow Campus Operations Board - our local group and input which is spearheading the strategy (and soon the tactics) of the local input to the build, on behalf of the area board of Wiltshire Council and thus the council itself.I smile wryly at "Open for all" used as a headline to sell meetings during the normal working day, as that excludes the 70% of us working people who have a "9 to 5" job, but that's something that Brian and I have discussed in the past and we're going to have to agree to differ on. I'm somewhat relieved, in this case, by the fact that there are / will be plenty of other opportunities too. The composition of the SCOB is not a secret, and all members (I'm one of 'em) are open to being contacted. Indeed - if it be attending meetings, using facilities, and having people get in touch with us we can learn more and provide more valuable input to tuning the design philosophy of the campus for starters ...
Further information? Brian writes to his open forum members:
Dear Colleague,
Melksham & District 55+ Senior’s Forum
You will recall that at an earlier meeting of our Forum we gave overwhelming support to the development of a Campus in Melksham on the Melksham House site. The Campus will bring and increase facilities to our community. As well as a new Library on the site it will include new leisure and recreational facilities. It is intended to endeavor to ensure that the Campus is as inclusive as possible and meets the needs of all ages and genders.
The Melksham campus project is driven by an elected Shadow Community Operations Board under the chairmanship of Cllr Roy While. The Shadow Board is keen to explore local views across the whole community area including our rural local villages, on how to ensure their approach contributes towards the development of an accessible community facility.
Melksham & District 55+ Senior’s Forum is hosting a public meeting as part of our next meeting on Monday 28th November at 10:15am with refreshments from 10am kindly provided by Waitrose store in Melksham . Our venue on this occasion is the newly refurbished Melksham United Church (opposite Lloyds Bank) in High Street. Melksham.
Your presence along with any of your friends is earnestly requested to help us provide the Shadow Board with your views on the inclusive requirements for this desirable project. This will help to improve the quality of life for our citizens of all ages in the near future and for many future generations.
We look forward to your presence
Kind regards