Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2015-10-22 18:39:53 - Graham Ellis
How big is Melksham?
• There at around 6,500 homes in Melksham Town
• Each has an average electortate of 1.8, so that's 11,700 people
• Add in around 3,300 childrne and you have a population of 15,000
• And let's take a guess at how many non-voters ... round it to around 16,000
But hang on a minute - walk out of the town on Spa Road and when you cross the inconspicuouse little bridge over the brook, you're out of "Melksham" but you're still in the town. And something similar applied is you head out towards Sandridge - a little way into the new housing, with no visible boundary, you leave Melksham Town. Let's call it "Greater Melksham" that you're in - a combination of the town parish, and "Melksham Without" Parish. For the most part, there are close links / very close links between the residents / residences of Melksham Without and Melksham town.
• There at around 10,000 homes in Melksham as a whole
• Each has an average electortate of 1.8, so that's 18,000 people
• Add in around 5,000 childrne and you have a population of 23,000
• And let's take a guess at how many non-voters ... round it to around 24,000
Does it matter how big Melksham is?
Yes - investment and services by unitary and central government is guided by the size of the town, and the Wilshire mantra on "Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbridge" would be ""Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbridge, Melkham ..." taking Melksham as a whole, not just Melksham Town. Of course, people tend to see investment in other towns rather than theirs as a slap in the face, and queirly ignore it in theirs, but look at things like hospitals (there are minor injury units in Chippenham and Trowbridge, but not Melksham), train services (2 an hour each way at Chippenham and Trowbridge, one every 2 hours each way at Melksham), Colleged beyond secondary school in Chippenham and Trowbridge but not in Melksham, and you see evidence of Melksham being underprovided in health, transport and education. We come behind smaller urban areas which are single parishes - I'm thinking of Warminster, Devizes, Amesbury ...
Melksham Town council, looking after the town centre, charges its council tax payers to look after the town. And that's a payment they make for facilities that are used by everyone including those who live in greater Melksham but now Melksham Town. If the town were to take over car parking an toilets, the situation would be all the more ironic as the facilities would be most used by those people further out - the inner once who pay for the faciities going to the loo at home or walking.
And it does strike me as rather silly that we have two councils in offices a short distance from each other, with so much n common discussing stuff and writing back and forth to one another.
Of course, were the councils to merge, it would not all be plain sailing. The subject's up for discussion at the moment, with a consultation held at the Assembly Hall last night. A turgid presentation from the head table, lead by a Wiltshire councillor from outside the area - professional enough, but very much going through the motions as I think he has been all across the county where proposals are up for discussion.
There are geunuine fears of some elements of a merger - the consuming of village or quasi- village life into the town, the lack of attention to rural or residential (as opposed to town centre) issues, the potential reduction in representation, and the loss of honorary offices for elected local councillors and work for a handful of employees. Personally, I suspect that natural wastage is all that's needed for much of this.
More seriously, the Wiltshire Councillor who spoke said that the council couldn't predict what the rates precept would be for the fuitre and wouldn't offer any thoughts as to the representation areas / numbers of councillors for each if it went ahead. This last is especially worrying - it means that we're being asked to make inputs and choices based on the current setup, or an alternatve which Witshire Council have specifically decide to leave very fuzzy at this stage. The final decision is made by a full council meeting on 24th November, where the future of Melksham is decided upon by the votes of the 98 Wiltshire Councillors, representing places such as Salisbury, Malmesbury, Cricklade, Trowbridge, Urchfont, Mere ... based on the advise of the meeting's head table group and a very shallow local knoweldge. Of the six Wiltshire Councillors who actually represent the areas about which the discussions were being held, only one actually turned up to listen to what people had to say.