Melksham, Month by month through 2011
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-12-23 09:18:29 - Graham EllisIt's December 2011 ... and the run up to Christmas. Yesterday afternoon, I was tidying up thousands of picture I have taken this year, and I've chosen one picture from each month - link [here] - to show something of Melksham and remind you about what's been happening in the town / surrounding area.
January's Picture - "An Opportunity for Melksham?" advertises the shop front, during a consultation on the re-coming of the Wilts and Berks Canal. That's a scheme that has progressed well through the year, and will indeed by a tremendous opportunity. A few weeks ago I saw some updated / fine tuned plans, and I look forward to the time that an active waterway brings investment and people to the town. [more]
February's Picture shows trees felled at Sainsbury's for their store extension. Both Sainsbury's and Asda did themselves no favors with their ground clearance activities - mature trees lost which many considered unnecessary at both. But the howls of outrage were somewhat muffled when trees at the nature reserve were pollarded; that looks to the uninitiated like "cut down" too, and serves as a reminder that trees are transient to some extent and will grow again and back in fresh places. Both Sainsbury and Asda are now open in their expanded or new form, and both appear to be doing well. The high street, too, has been busy of late and the overall picture is of a town that's developing and doing well. [more]
For March, I have chosen a picture of the padlocks on the electric substation at Beanacre. Not so much "in the news" but a reminder of services that we all rely upon - the gas, the water, and the electricity. Not to forget the IT superhighway - broadband connection. We've upped our own connections to 100 Mbit this year - those are spectacular figures compared to what we could have even a couple of years ago. The picture in not as rosy in some of the villages, and even BT's "infinity" system is far from infinite in our area; their sales rep called me to invite me to upgrade to just 38 Mbit the other day. Melksham Broadband Comparison and [more]
April saw proposals for a "Melksham Campus" being pushed ahead, care of the Area Board of Wilthire Council. In my view, it's sensible to replace a whole series of outdated facilities, with expensive maintainable bill ever rising, with a far lower number of purpose built modern facilities which will cut maintainable costs, and allow facilities to be open far longer by sharing running costs, and allow those facilities to provide for what's needed now and in th future rather than what was needed 20 years ago. However, the single site chosen on land at Woolmore farm (farm buildings pictured for April) was considered by many people to be inappropriate - a library that's a mile and a half out of town and a youth centre that's right beside the school didn't seem exactly ideal. [detail] and [more]
My May picture shows road works in Melksham's Town Centre. The replacement of the pavements - which has taken place over a very long period - has resulted in major disruption in the town centre. Local businesses have complained at the effect on their trade, and many people have asked whether it had to be so slow. Comparison was made to the speed of road changes at Lidl and Asda, which appeared to be much more major and happened in a short period. [more]
In June, I attended the launch breakfast for the publicity machine for the Melksham Festival of Food and Drink, now becoming a regular feature on the Melksham Calendar. Here, at the launch at Leekes, are Andrew Morgan of the Town Council and Sam Geddes who - amongst other roles - is press officer for the Chamber of Commerce.
July saw the Melksham Carnival and Party in the Park. As ever - a great day, with large crowds attending both events. My picture shows one of the carnival floats wriggling around from Coronation Road to Warwick Crescent - back on the "old route" from previous years. [more]
In August, First Great Western ran some extra trains early on Sunday mornings on the TransWilts line that serves Melksham. It was something of a "trial" - a challenge to those of us who've campaigned for an improved service to show that we could bring in extra business for them. Alas, First Great Western had to change their planning to lengthen the trains from their initial plan twice over, and they were still full to the point of being almost overcrowded. And that was after we scaled right back on our advertising to the extent that people complained that they hadn't heard about the service until it was too late! [detail]
Parking - both roadside and in Council owned car parks - has been a major issue across Wiltshire this year. Wiltshire Council has, against howls of protests from some, raised charges dramatically. This has resulted in a change in the metrics of parking - almost emptying the previously full (previously free for 1 hour) central car park, and bringing much more roadside parking, as well as a major increase in use of car parks such as Lowbourne and Kings Street which are more convenient to many, and are now at the same price as the Central Car Park. My September picture shows daytime parking in Ruskin Avenue, where proposals for restrictions are now going through. Further article (personal view [here].
In October 2009, this was a field. Here, in October 2011, are houses - as Melksham expands to the East. A great pity for those of us who used to walk our dogs here, but there are other field areas remaining and I - for one - am very encouraging of the growth of Melksham. It's good to help maintain the town at the sort of size that it can support a vibrant High Street, a good rail service, a flexible and modern campus, a secondary school, a tourist industry, and much more. I welcome the newcomers to the town.
Melksham HAS changed dramatically over the years - and Mr Seager's slide show on 23rd November showed us just how much. A few - a very few - of the shops he showed us from 30 years ago remain. But gone are the Temperence Hotel, the International Stores, the Halifax, Currys, Dewhursts, and many, many more. Changes are also opportunities. Mobile phone shops, curry houses, baguette bars, Komix, Computer Games shops and a host of others who serve modern industries would have been ahead of their time in the 1950s and would have quickly folded. But now, these shops are running strong and long may they continue to do so. [more]
For December, I'm finishing up with a view of Melksham House. But that's because it's really a starting point. Through a bit of lateral thinking, and a willingness to be flexible by many people, the proposed Campus site has been switched from the fields of Woolmore Farm to Melksham House, just a few yards from the Market place. In the spring, Woollmore Farm was hailed as the only option. But in October, Wiltshire Council purchased Melksham House from Cooper Tires, and on 13th December the Council gave the green light to a major expenditure there to put in new facilities. All very sensible - Melksham House has in any case been something of a community centre for quite a while, and so it's an ongoing facility rather than a totally new one. And it meets the needs of the "single site" and the "town centre" sides who appeared to be locked in an unjoinable divide in the Spring.[more]By Choosing just one picture per month, I have had to exclude a whole series of items / pictures that I could have chosen. The occasional "no news" month has been more than made up for this year by months which have overflowed with good news stories ...
Here - in the order I went through the year - are the items that I considered, but then didn't make the lead for the month. Each a good story in its own right, and each of which will have a positive influence for next year.
Well House Manor Opens for Cream Teas [detail] / Independent Traders group formed / Melksham Forward [more] / Defibrillator Campaign [more] / A further Dog [more] / Santa Train [pictures] / Christmas Lights [more]
What WILL next year bring? I don't know for sure, but I have the following major items on my agenda / calendar to keep an eye on ...
Olympics / Re-franchise of local rail services / Golden Jubilee / Campus / Canal
Each and every one of those will be big subjects in Melksham. They can all be tremendously positive. And in each case, we have the ability to influence the way they happen and make the very best of what they provide. I'm really looking forward to 2012.