What a difference a year made - Melksham Campus
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2012-10-12 08:05:01 - Graham EllisLast year, an Area Board meeting in Melksham, the Campus project was pushed ahead with the majority of the councillors in support, but a vocal minority, and much of the public, seriously concerned that a campus on the outskirts of Melksham wasn't right for certain of the facilities. It's probably fair to say that the council pressed forward, bloodied but unbowed, and leaving severe local concern.
What a difference a year made!
Thursday evening, the area board met to discuss the Campus project. It's now been resited, popularly, to a site just off the centre of the town; that site's not without its challenges, but last night's meeting, equally large in size, was quite the opposite in attitude - very positive and forward looking, and with all of the councillors now on side. It's a victory of listening to requests, or a victory for common sense if you prefer to see it that way.The meeting was the first opportunity given to look at early draft design conclusions - where the major blocks would go on the site and what they would be, what would be adjacent to what, what would be new and what would remain. And following on from that, how the various uses (for the work is being done to be used!) will fit into the bricks and mortar on the site, and across the wider community. A look has also been taken - but very much a first look - to consider site access (arrivals and departures); where and how.
There *are* many questions still to be answered. But I was very happy to find that only two questions of all of those raised took me from "left field" and I think in this case other members of the SCOB (Shadow Community Operations Board) on which I sit are probably already in the loop. Notes were taken, all issues / questions (which I'm not going to list here) were truly addressed if not fully answered to conclusion on the night will be considered as we go forward to the more detailed design phase.