Graham Ellis - my blog
Assembly Hall update and new program
The April to June Assemebly Hall program arrived back yesterday from the printers and is already in the racks at the Assembly Hall and TIC. We have a wonderful team of volunteers at the Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall who are helping distribute this door to door over the next fortnight. And it is also online (here)A great deal has happened at the Assembly Hall in three months and I wrote a news update for our volunteer team - copied below to update wider friends too.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I can't believe it's three months since you last posted Assembly Hall brochures through letter boxed in your part of Melksham, and - wow - what a contribution your help makes. Even in the low mid-winter months when people tend not to venture out, there have been a number of sell-out events and plenty more where we can make it go even better.
Are you available to distribute newsletters again, please - help us continue to make a real difference? They arrived from the printer yesterday, and I have picked them up. Same areas / set of streets as last time, please. Available for collection from us (48, Spa Road)
Friday 1st March
Saturday 2nd March
Sunday 3rd March
Monday 4th March
For distribution at your convenience, ideally over the following two weeks. I will be away from very early on 5th - available online and there will be people around but would be great for the vast majority to be with you over the weekend.
This email is (blind) copied to around 15 people, and for some of you there may be elements that don’t apply to you. Sorry about that; please forgive.
The following is "for your information" - no further calls for help hidden in it!
An update on the Assembly Hall, 1st March 2024
On immediate operation, Sara, Sarah, Hugh and Gloria on the Town Council staff are doing a sterling job, wonderfully helped by the staff who are called to help on the bar and in the hall at events. The term is "casual" for their jobs, but they are far from that. Kevin has moved away from the area, but is still helping out as he passes things over, and Bruce - though he has left - can occasionally be seen at events like the record fair. And there's a small and select number of volunteers (but too many to name here) helping out - some who have done so for many years, some quite new.
Repairs have started on the Assembly Hall roof, and the council's amenities team has, during their quiet outdoor period, done a really good job in the changing rooms behind the stage - vital for performs but a part of the hall most of us rarely see. Bookings are already being made / accepted for 2025 and we are looking forward with optimism.
Looking a little further ahead, I note that all the staff currently overseeing events at the Assembly Hall were taken on for different roles, predominantly weekday daytime where the hall is so much weekend and evening. So from a purely personal viewpoint each of them will, surely, be considering the future beyond the immediate - whether continuing hall roles are a career and learning opportunity they cherish, or whether they want to drop back into the jobs they were employed for or something similar. They are doing a hugely positive job ... but we are short of people in a number of areas. There is good news - there's recruitment underway and no question that the Assembly Hall has a future beyond the immediate future.
At Melksham Town Council, we have lost four councillors in the last year and you'll be hard pressed to find any staff members who have been consistently with us and at their normal place of work throughout the last year and a half (vacations and short illnesses excepted, of course). That's not a stable environment or one in which tasks are quickly and routinely undertaken through familiarity. Lots of questions are raised and that puts pressure on senior people too. The fact that these issues are noted and accepted is an excellent step to actually moving us forward towards a happy, efficient, motivated council with a strategy in the future. That's not something that will happen overnight but work is being done with that objective in mind. I know a lot more that I can openly say, but please bear in mind that I am not on the staffing committee so there are areas I am limited; that committee - thank goodness - is now sharing wider than it traditionally has done and is listening a little more to other councillors who have experience of business operation, including staff issues - both technical and motivational.
So what of the future of the Assembly Hall and Blue Pool? There is no doubt that the facilities, events and opportunities provided are loved, wanted and there are more needs. For the future, "do nothing' is probably a poor option, but we don't have the team and resource within the team to plan ahead for efficient change to an excellent future with minimised risk. For a few weeks, staffing the hall and doing immediate stuff is OK - but beyond that we really need to move on. Some of tat may be with existing staff as they pass on day to day stuff to others, but in so many areas we need to buy in or bring in others as volunteers or operators. That needs to be directed by the full council as building owner, and sooner rather than later they need to tell Wiltshire Council that they'll buy the Blue Pool. That's before WC get tired of waiting. The Friends presentation of 17th July last stands, looking at the options, though much has move on with the friends, and a little bit has crept on with the council (we know that the Blue Pool structure is basically sound) since then. A big THANK YOU to our active friends - quite a number of you - who have been doing background work and indeed (thank you) standing up at council meetings and pointing out the need to act. At times it feels like the inputs are ignored; they are not in that they are helping set the environment to us (as a council) moving on, and indeed the publicly shown sentiment has now moved on from any proposal of permanent closure.
A very long email which should be read for the most part as from me personally and opinions stated are not official from the council. But I ain't far out, thank you all SO much for your help, and can see ahead a really exciting future, in which the publicity of leafletting that you're helping with is an ongoing key element.
Nothing above is particularly secret - written for the Friends core team and sent to them first (yesterday) but no problem with wider sharing.
Desert Island answers
A fascinating set of questions based, perhaps on Desert Island Discs, came to me with a suggestion that it would interest our electorate. OK - here goes; I wonder if any others will post answers.* What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Career wise, a transport planner; intrigued by infrastructure arrangements, service patterns and how things knit together into a total system and network that dances with effective beauty. Personally, wanted to learn how to be social and happy.
* What made you want to get into politics?
Nothing. I suggest to you that I am not interested in or wanting to be in politics, though I need to be political in my approach and what I do.
* What has been the proudest moment in your life?
Hard to pick just one; in general, where something I have done has made a real difference, and I can see that back to software written 45 years ago which had so many features ahead of their time and informed other products though to a number of software and web things I see where I know I trained and influenced the authors. More recently, changes in and around public transport in this area - most recently last September when at long last we got back to an all day, every day, all year rail service here. "Proud"is a dangerous word, though; I would rather say that these are things that give me a sense of quiet achievement.
"Proud", mind, might be of those close and I am going to respect privacy and not post detail
* What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Melksham at the moment?
In the longer term, the environmental challenge for our planet as a whole and how we in Melksham can seriously do our bit to leave a planet for our grand children and great grand children. I said "longER term" not long term - we don't have that long.
Locally, making sure that we know what we want for the future and coming together to help to achieve it. That's both for day to day and week to week stuff, and challenges like planning our world around us. And making sure that usable input routes are available for everyone to tell what they want, and information to help them know what of that is practical and for us all to work together as a happy and informed team to deliver that vision.
* What is your guilty pleasure?
Life and the luck I have to be able to do things I enjoy.
* If you were stranded on a desert island, which one other Town Councillor or Officer would you choose to be your only companion?
Sorry (and I know one or two may read this) - none of you. My choice for my only companion would be my wife Lisa. We already know we can live in close and joined proximity and not run out of things to say for days and weeks and be a positive team in that. Not a desert island but we are off soon on some travels where we won't know anyone else along the way and I'm really looking forward to that like I would look forward with no other.
Let's turn the question round. If I were stranded on a desert island with an officer or another councillor, I'm sure that both of us would find it challenging - in some cases more that others. And I'm sure we could work out how to share the life and space there; I suspect there is a very great deal more to my colleagues than revealed with working together at council. But, please, let it be Lisa, and of course is she could be persuaded to stand for the vacant seat that would make my answer really easy!
Image - Collective Commons license - details
Published Friday, 1st March 2024
Planning the next 15 years for Melksham
A really good meeting last night of the steering group of the Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan where we were considering the changes our advisory consultants were suggesting in response to public input at the tail end of last year. It's a group that doesn't get much public attention - partly because it's looking ahead beyond most people's personal concern, partly because the team is doing things so well and correctly that it doesn't make the press or social media, partly because there is virtually no personal ego or political position on display from the people present, and partly because the specialists who are helping us really know the area now, and are advising based on what works for us and we need, and totally NOT on what helps them charge more fees for their work. They look to save us money even to the extent that it reduced what they charge us. Partly also because of the massive use we are making of local volunteer specialists on the group where they know a darned sight more than any of the councillors involved.I really enjoy this work - making sure that the wording is right to be crystal clear and legally enforceable with as much good local influence as we can muster for the changes we will inevitable see in Melksham though the next 15 years. Things like ...
* Having new residencies provided with solar electricity generation on their structures wherever practical, with battery storage locally
* Protecting green spaces and wedges in and between our communities, while at the same time ensuring that as many people as possible can live and work with very short travel requirements between the two places
* Ensuring that new dwellings built are to be of the type and size that the areas needs rather that just maximising the profit for the builders, and that they are pleasant places to live. From a practical viewpoint, ensuring they they can be truly afforded by people who want to live here
* Making sure that our heritage and history is protected - not only the fabric of the history, but also the environment in which it sits so that it contributes to the quality of life and doesn't become a conservation nightmare.
* Partnering with the core strategy, Wiltshire Council's local plan, the national planning policy framework and other adopted development plans so that all the elements involved in planning for the future are working with rather than against each other where we can
* Adding to biodiversity, tree cover and other environmental considerations both for the long term good and also to help make this a nice place to live
And that is only a sample of the works we have been doing. Later this year, all our work will go to an inspector to make sure it's OK for a legal document which will have real teeth for the next decade, and then go to a public vote. Plan is to have it adopted well before the next local elections in May 2025, as the team is a really good one and we want to complete the work before we may have to go. Not a selfish thing - there is broad agreement on the whole plan so I suspect that your 2025 to 2029 councillors will want the same things and NOT want to have to learn into the complex process in June 2025.
Ending where I started - what a fruitful and enjoyable joint meeting of the Melksham Town and Melksham Without parishes, looking at the whole area. Two councillors from each parish having voting rights on the group, but really good to have two extra observers there last night from Melksham Without. Clerk and minute taker from both Without and Town should also be there to cope with the rapid fire and technical activity and to report back to their respective full councils; last night only the without officer team was there, but they are superbly effective and informed, and I am comfortable to give a brief update to the town at our March meetings.
It's for this sort of forward planning work that I became a councillor - helping shape the town and surrounding area for the future. Really happy to answer any questions - a pleasure to explain and learn from others too..
Published Thursday, 29th February 2024
From around Europe
A bit more of a personal one today - but lots learned about things that we could (and could not) do locally in the Wiltshire and Melksham areas.Almost exactly 4,000 kms on my interrail pass - over the last 12 days. I've used it to ride on 37 trains in 8 countries, and according to my pass log I have visited 25 places and spent 2 days, 13 hours and 35 minutes on trains - actually a little longer as that probably does not count the time sitting on trains at their starting point waiting to leave. In addition to the pass cost, I have spent perhaps 15 euros on reservations which are required for a few trains. I have spent a lot more on food and drink (almost entirely non-alcoholic) and overnight accommodation; in the counties I have been in, all that has been remarkably good value for the most part.
Buses, trains in the UK, undergrounds, trams, a cliff lift, a ferry, and a (shhh!) flight back have all been added so a total of 56 railed transits, 10 road transit, 1 water transit and one airborne, and lots of walking in some places - much of it to see places away from the public transport. Not a single lift in a private car nor a taxi ride (though the latter was a planned "option B" if a bus had not been available. Missed - too many things I would love to have seen / done.Highlights? Too many. I have seen and have a first flavour of Berlin and Prague, Brno and Kosice, Budapest and Zagreb, Koper and Trieste. And also of smaller places like Krhanice, Zruc and Nove Mesto na Morove, Sumperk and Kouty Nad Desnou, Zilina and Szob. And I have had the pleasure of re-acquainting myself with Paris, Ljubljana and Venice from different angles to I have seen them before. And I have seen countryside from rolling hills to flat plains, from pastures to forests and gorges, and also industrial blight and some pretty dire residential areas. And I have taken pictures - far too many to share more than 1 in 100, of places, people and trains - and of the passenger facilities and information systems. And I have watched and learned how they operate; I was going to add "and how things are handled when things go wrong" but there was only a single incidence of that.
Low points? Virtually none.I have remained in touch - monitoring and following up on the train forum, with Wiltshire Council on buses, and a great deal of Town Council stuff which many of you live in Melksham may have read and be aware of, and those of you who aren't will not want to be. Attended a staffing committee meeting remotely where we learned amongst other things of the departure of another councillor - the meeting's contents are confidential, but the news of that resignation has now broken. Been it touch pretty constantly with Lisa too - very much something we are use to; we courted electronically - we were early adopters of the technology and it's still hard to say "goodbye" at end of a conversation, even though we know another will start within a few hours.
You may have read my writings in various places and I have SO MANY more experiences I could write of and tell - so much I have learned. Rail safety and modernisation. Ticketing systems. Timetable presentation. Real time systems. Train layouts. Marketing to tourists. Freight Railways. Connections and transport integration. Hotels invisible from the street. International - bus transfers for foot passengers, and thin rail service.
What has changed in recent years? The electronics. I have some printed papers with me, but not many and they were hardly needed. My ticket and my boarding pass are on my phone, as are my timetables. The printed timetable I have has been little used; the Europe Rail Map has been used and the WONDERFUL three volumes of Mike Ball's European Railway have been read and followed.
With only a few exceptions, even the local trains have power points and free WiFi and onboard loos, and a train manager who checks tickets electronically. Stations, once Paris was left, have all been open (ungated) and I do like the model. Quite the reverse at the airport on my single flight, with security screening, passport gates for travel to the UK (and passport stamped)
I'm writing this in flight - before I post I will have gone back and completed my stats as I don't yet know how I'm going to make the airport to Melksham journey - there are plans "A", "B" and "C" depending on timing. Sunday, and especially morning, public transport in the UK sucks. I was on the third bus from Venice to the airport this morning, and I may be on the first bus from Bath to Melksham. Won't quite get me home as the 271 and 272 which pass my home only run Monday to Saturday.Looking forward to being home. Seeing Lisa, the hounds. Meeting a couple of friends. Checking on a few things. Doing my washing (I have been on a rinse and go regime). I have a couple of meetings too - can't really list them as "looking FORWARD to". And it will be good to sleep in my own bed.
So - HOME and the trip has been long enough. Would I do similar again? Yes - but give me a few days at home first. Changes for next time? Take Lisa for a thousand reasons, and as a consequence of that ease back somewhat on the number of hops off and ons, spend more time in places and move more towards a diet that isn not primarily international fast food. I'm looking forward to this next trip even more that the one I'm returning from today.
Published Sunday, 25th February 2024
On the situation at Melksham Town Council
A fourth (of the fifteen) of your Melksham Town Councillors has resigned - I think all since the start of last year and you will be hard pressed to find anyone who was an employee of the Town Council who has been consistently at their designated place of work, vacations and short sicknesses excepted, throughout those 14 months. I have never served on another Town Council, but I am told it's not normal. As someone who's run a business in the town, with work across the UK and internationally, I can tell you that our team was key to our operation and a continuity of directors and staff, all working with a shared strategy which we all understood and tune over time, was key. I can also tell you that as a Town Council we could achieve so much more with an agreed collective strategy."When you are in a hole, stop digging". I believe that the situation I've describe says we are in a hole and shows you the great cost of being in that hole. It does not tell you the nature / characteristics of the hole, so it does not tell you whether any actions the council - staff and councillors - are taking is actually fixing things or simply still digging.
It does not help where those of us who want to help and perhaps have experience that would do the town so much good are not called on, or worse - ever heard the term "don't shoot the messenger?" - well, sorry folks, your messengers are being metaphorically shot and wounded. And many of them - councillors and staff - have said "I don't like being shot" and have walked away. And I don't blame them.
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Yeah - we (as a council) don't seem to have heard that one and have been building up sh** loads of trouble. The Town Council has a staffing committee with 5 members; it meets in confidential session and until the last few days, meetings were confidential even to the exclusion of other councillors. For individual staff member matters which had risen above (or involved) the clerk, that may be justified. For the systemic issues it is not, and I would like to thank those members of the committee who opened up the meeting during the week to any other councillor who could attend. It's a step in the right direction - and I hope just not a flash in the pan.
There was a song "Three wheels on my wagon" and they kept rolling and more wheels fell off until the whole thing came to a stop. And the people in the wagon kept on going until all the wheels had fallen off and they had to thow themselves on the mercy of the surrounding crowds. We have elections - we all loose our seats next year, but have a chance if we choose to stand to be re-elected if we wish. I hope we can all rise above and get past the current issues so that all of us who wish to stand can hold our heads high. That is the hope, but the fear is that some will want to show how well they have being doing at the expense of others who have been equally of more helpful, but have been getting on with doing the job rather than in marketing their own contributions.
This is an ongoing story; for the last 10 days I have been following from my sabbatical journeys around Europe (carefully planned so that I'm home for full council meetings). This has been a post of some explanations where I am at liberty to explain. There is a lot I cannot explain - be it confidential, or because it defies explanation. More will, I'm sure, out in the fullness of time, and I do hope to come back and address the question "so what can be done about it" where "IT" is to have a fully motivated and happy team working for the Town of Melksham.
Published Saturday, 24th February 2024
On holiday, or no?
Am I on holiday? No, and yes, and no. And I'm happy with that.
No - The best way to style it is to say I'm on a sabbatical journey - a learning and enriching trip that primarily looks at public transport and the structure of when and why people need to move in places far from home. It allows me - already and into the future - to add personal experience having "seen things for myself" to what I do. And that give power to suggestions of what we might do into the future in our street, our town, our county and our country. Tragedy is that very few of those suggestions will lead to much, though similar experiences in the past have helped lead to campaigning accurately and practically that has made some of what I do effective. And being retired and independent speaking for myself, I can afford the gross inefficiency of time involved.
Yes - this is a chance to do something I enjoy which is a change from what I do on a daily basis. To tick places off a bucket list that I don't formally have. To go where the fancy takes me, planning just a handful of days ahead. To visit the tourist honeypots and obscure random villages that I hadn't heard of until I got on the train headed there. A holiday of this sort has no gain without pain, and, yes, I can find myself with several hours of waiting with little around, or rushing to make a connection when actually I would like longer in a place - so marking somewhere up as "I want to come back here" though so many such wants that I will never realise them all
No - I'm alone and would rather not be. Online helps and I am still very much in touch with Lisa; we've had this style now for just two years shy of thirty and it works, two ways, for both of us. And I am not alone / away from bus, train, home, council stuff with modern electronic comms. So I keep up the activities as normal, and you might argue that I don't need to do so; you would be correct in that argument perhaps but yet having taken on (for example) the responsibility of being a councillor, I want and should deliver on that responsibility. Morning before breakfast, and evenings after dark are taken up with these matter, and indeed on longer train journeys during the day one eye is on the scenery and what's going on around me, and the other on my keyboard as I write.
I'm in Budapest. I took an almost-tourist day yesterday, with a 24 hour Budapest card that gave me entry into so many places and public transport included. A lot of tram and metro hopping. And the odd bus. I ate in a traditional restaurant a traditional Hungarian meal of goulash soup, a main chicken and pasta dish, and sour cherry strudel (but took the opportunity there to recharge my phone). And I took so many pictures - not only of the "bore you friends at home" beautiful scenes, but of people and getting around and looking at ...
• How things are directed and waymarked for newcomers to the area.
• How information is provided on an immediate basis to people travelling.
• How public transport links up into a connecting network.
• How living, working, shopping, leisure and the green environment link.
• How history is integrated with today's life.
• How a place is being updated, maintained, modernised while still in use.
... each worthy of an article if anyone would actually read it, but yet experiences that will come to play in the future.
I bring you a picture from Budapest. It's on a train. It shows the real time information at the carriage end. The upper display switches between 3 displays - next station and following stations to destination with estimated arrival time, onward connections (tram, trolleybus, bus, train) at the next calling point with platform / place direction where that varies each day, and real time running data, and a map showing where you are. The lower display alternates between loading showing you how busy each carriage is to help you move through and find a seat, and a speed and how-are-we-doing display, and (I think - don'e speak the language) a promotional piece telling you about ticketing options and opportunities. And at the bottom is the rubbish bin. And, my goodness, there are some wonderful ideas here in mainland Europe that we could do well to follow to encourage better recycling of materials we no longer need. But that is a story for another day. Morning is breaking and I have a train to catch.
Published Thursday, 22nd February 2024
Is the environment important to Melksham Town Council?
The environment around us is the very bubble in which we survive; in past times, it has had something of an equilibrium in which many of the effects of our species have been balanced out ensuring our climate has carried on much as it has in the past. However, population growth and a "quality of life" requirement means that in recent years we have been using resources much faster than they are regenerated, not only setting up a direct problem for the future but bringing problems for today too. That's just to set the background - this post is not intended to be an environmental lecture - but I needed to start by voicing concerns and setting the scene.In 2019, Melksham Town Council adopted an environmental policy - and a good one at that time, almost "ahead of the game" and working very much in co-operation with Wiltshire Council's plan. And in 2022, the current council endorsed that plan through an "Environmental and Climate Working Group". A successful Climatefest was held - if you consider success to be bringing matters to lots of people's attention, but that's just one step and needs/needed to be just the starting point. This is a long term thing, and frustrated by the lack of activity several councillors and volunteers left the group about this time last year (February 2023) ... and yet since that time, through 2023, we built up something of a head of steam - a further ClimateFest, lots more public information, reviewing items on al council agendas and commenting on their environmental issues. I'm personally out of the UK (public transport, mostly electric trains!) until next week, but when I get back I'm looking forward to seeing the biodiversity planting that should be under way.
All good? Not quite. At the pre-Christmas full council meeting, to which apologies for absence had been sent ahead, a couple of councillors raised concerns about how the group was running. It wasn't even on the agenda, assumptions were made, and after what I understand was a heated debate your councillors voted to close the group. Based on here-say and without hearing the facts. A kangaroo court. Those who voted to disband the group should hang their heads in shame. Yes, it costs money to do the environmental thing. Yes, we need more officer support. But you - you know who you are - can't make this go away.
The "ECWG" was aware of issues in its operation by last autumn, and we re-jigged our meetings to make best use of officer time and council funds. I share some concern with the judges and jury who passed their verdict for Christmas. So lets all work together and build back better, with proper resources.
Let me offer you a carrot. There's an election coming up for your seats in 2025. Join with us, get your name out in public as someone who supports the environment and take away that reputation of being one of the ones who torpedoed Melksham's environmental concerns.
Supporting text (1) - 19.2.2024
Dear Andrew,
Please find attached documents associated with new terms of reference for a new environment working group. These include both the latest notes from meetings with Linda Roberts, Town Clerk, in October and November last year, and the earlier terms of reference and the commitment that this council has made to the whole environmental issue, and not just the bio-diversity element - you have the biodiversity plan for a separate agenda item in my earlier email and copied below.
The issue was delegated to the Environment and Climate working group, and from a slow start that built up in line with the terms of reference through last year, with a small team of dedicated councillors and community experts / volunteers, who were shocked at the pre-Christmas decision to close the group as set up. The motion (for the record) was made without the matter being on the agenda, and without reference to many key members of the working group - myself included - who had previously recorded their apologies for absence. Things were said at that meeting that were incorrect guesses, and as a result I consider the decision taken to be a poor one, and indeed in my view it was taken against standing orders which require motions to be notified in advance. It was also made without reference to the documents available from months before, some of which are attached and are in the hands of the Town Clerk.
However
It DOES make sense to review the group. The environment has grown into a major issue that should be considered on everything we do as a council - in our own works, in the example we set, and in the encouragement we provide to our community. We started to talk the talk years ago, but when we started to walk the walk last spring, we found our tools wanting. Which is why ECWG Stepped up to meeting every 3 weeks ahead of EcDev (that schedule chosen for the convenience of officers and expense so that they did not have to commit to another evening) … with group members informally meeting to chat - openly, with anyone interested welcome to come along) in intermediate weeks. But even this was / is not enough, and the group (in my view) need to meet regularly, without a one hour time limit, and have officer support for activities such as climate fest and informing the public with such things as film show like the one we free licensed earlier this month.
Please enclose attach the proposed terms of reference from last November to the agenda, and let’s review them. I would hope that in the three months since then, officers have had a change (the clerk, or delegates) to top and tail them as promised and bring them back to council to make a stronger group for the purpose.
Closing down the group on completion of delivery of the biodiversity plan without resources and methods allocated to implement it, would in my view show Melksham Town Council in a very bad light - not only giving only lip service to what we need to do on biodiversity, but also turning our back - at least at the moment - on all the other environmental commitments we have signed up to.
I am out of town this week, but available to answer overnight online and will be back in time for next Monday. I do hope we can progress this.
Finally, a big THANK YOU to all the members of ECWG through the last year for your support and help to this point. The importance of our environment is hard to overstate and in our little way in Melksham we have started to set the groundworks for much more. Onwards and upwards, I hope with your support in a bigger, better, more effective role.
Graham Ellis
Melksham Town Council, South Ward
Blog at http://grahamellis.uk/perm.html
Email policy statement at http://grahamellis.uk/email
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Graham4Melksham/
I only visit other social media occasionally.
Email: graham.ellis@melksham-tc.gov.uk or graham@sn12.net
Phone: 01225 708225 / 0797 4 925 928
Home: 48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
P.S. There is nothing “private” in the text above. Please share it in the agenda pack so that it’s commonly available fo everyone to consider for a full week before council.
Supporting text (2) - 19.2.2024
Dear Andrew,
Please find attached the proposed Biodiversity Action plan for consideration and possible adoption by Melksham Town at Full Council on Monday 26th February 2024. Please include the attachments in the agenda pack; it includes both an overview and specific items which councillors should consider
Please note that Biodiversity is only one of a number of Environment and Climate issues which are of concern. Proposed terms of reference (for a new adoption) are being forwarded today under separate cover though the proposed set that was discussed with the Town Clerk last October / November should be available to you on the system and was pretty dared close to what is needed; a re-adoption / completion of these terms of reference would be sensible for the “new” group and if we can add that to be resolved it would be great.
Personally, please pass on my apologies to tomorrow evening’s Ec Dev meeting - away this week. Working with Simon / Tom to see if I can attend remotely the extra late-notice staffing meeting on Wednesday. I will be back for full council next Monday.
Many Thanks
Graham
Melksham Town Council, South Ward
Blog at http://grahamellis.uk/perm.html
Email policy statement at http://grahamellis.uk/email
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Graham4Melksham/
I only visit other social media occasionally.
Email: graham.ellis@melksham-tc.gov.uk or graham@sn12.net
Phone: 01225 708225 / 0797 4 925 928
Home: 48 Spa Road, Melksham, SN12 7NY
Published Monday, 19th February 2024
How do / should I work the council system?
I've been elected to, and sit on, a Town Council that's in place to serve the town and the people of the town. And actually underneath a lot of the noise you'll see on social media, in the press, and in the council chamber it does pretty well for the most part in running things. But I can't say "perfectly" and human nature is such that we take an interest - perhaps a extreme interest - in where thing go wrong. Is that "extreme" though, or is it right for the directors / councillors / head of service because that is where we have scope to make things better?Picture - from where I am at the moment, thinking of Melksham from afar and seeing how different things are in different places
Where things don't work as they should, human nature for those responsible is to keep quiet, do their best, and not "fess up". And for those who see (or think they see) things going wrong to criticise - fuelled often by a lack of knowledge and with the flames encouraged by the very oxygen of secrecy. Oh dear.
It is very easy to assume the worst. Some do. It is very easy to criticise. Many do. It is possible to make suggestion - a few do, but most of those few lack information and find themselves coming up against obfustarscation and secrecy when they try to work things out. Sadly, it's a very, very rare "bird" who's there to make suggestions and have them stick and be implemented and something with on the surface should tae just days takes weeks, months, years. And it needs a magic too - a move from being primarily a protester to being a partner, working with the players in the system, having them understand the logic of change, and then working together to make for better.
I have a conundrum.
** Do I knuckle down, let things pass me by, and ride out the remaining year of my term as a quiet and inconsequential councillor? Voting with all the others for a budget that I don't think will deliver what people want, and is so thin in places that it has no vision and tasks our staff with delivering results without the tools to do so - it's so thin it encourages mistakes if they try to be forward thinking and innovative.
** Do I look to get a weight of support, working with other councillors and staff and volunteers and businesses and press and social media to change things in a good direction, maintaining the good and working with everyone, even though I'm not in any of the three organised clubs working in the background at times (it feels) to defend the status quo and their interest in it?
** Do I come to a sad decision that the setup isn't fixable in my time, and that if I wish to do anything for the future I am best doing so from outside?
There is no simple answer here. A year ago, the Environment and Climate Working group was delivering little but a bit of background noise. Over the year, I took the chair and we grew it to a noticeable force with meetings up from every 2 months to every 3 weeks, and us getting together informally in between. But then at a council meeting I was away for, and NOT on the agenda, a pretext was found to pass a motion to disband the group. On the pretext that it had been working outside its remit by inviting anyone (including staff if they wished) to meet informally off council premises and that was a concern with their insurance. For the absence of doubt, the meeting was NOT as was suggested in my bedroom! Passing motions not on the agenda is against our working rules - and the mayor agreed at the next meeting - but said the decision must stand because this sort of decision has been taken on other things too, and if he upholds the rules in this case, goodness only knows what other issues would be re-opened. Mob / party / grouping rule in the wild west of Melksham??
You won't read much about some of this stuff in too many places. It has security through obscurity, and few have the time to find it out. And some of our local social media is great for the day to day stuff, but the admins refuse as "political" and "it's all your opinion" things that don't match their "let's not upset the apple cart" view. Their choice on what they publish - it would be good to have published guidelines and not just "I have said", and correctness in their logic for refusal. There were some opinions but it was far, far, far from ALL my opinions. Fact is only 2 of at least 6 councillors who stood for re-election in 2021 got it; that's not an opinion - it's a fact.
Perhaps I'm as bad? I choose what topics to start for discussion on my councillor page. And I am admin on "Melksham South Ward" and a couple of other groups. But at least I publish the guidelines. And, by the way, welcome views that do not align with mine. Where I have a problem is spam (including off topic posting), impoliteness, things that are illegal, false information and flooding.
I'll do myself a huge dis-service, I suspect, if I publish the above. But then openness of information was one of the three pillars I stood for when you elected me, and I have not changed my view on that. The other two pillars were the environmental issues (I have touch on that above) and equality.
It's a Sunday morning - 09:00 here in the Czech Republic and I'm on a train off for a day's experiences!
Published Sunday, 18th February 2024
UK Health and Safety, comparison with the Czech Republic
Question asked - why are things so hard to achieve and complex in the UK? I don't have a full answer, but yesterday travelling in the Czech Republic I was so conscious of many things here (near Prague) that would never be allowed these days in England. Rail stuff (of course - you know my speciality) ... in no particular order* Foot crossings direct over the tracks
* Narrow Platforms
* Low level platforms
* People walking across the tracks (weeing behind trucks too!)
* Unguarded wheelchair / cycle ramps
* Unfenced lines and Unfenced platforms
* Trains so short that they cannot make economic sense at the proportion of the cost that has to be met from fare revenue
and not illustrated ...
* Unguarded level crossings
* Staff riding openly on moving trains
* and staff working on live parallel tracks - and there are lots of 2 way crossovers to allow services to continue while they are doing so.
There is a great deal of construction and rebuilding going on - on the still-operating railway - and so many things that would have people in England throwing their hands up in horror. And tickets are routinely checked on trains which means that stations are not gated making them feel much more friendly, saving staff, and allowing their facilities to be used not only by passengers but by the general population around.
Published Saturday, 17th February 2024
Melksham Town Council - on Projects
So, so many questions are raised about what the Town Council does, and how it does it. Background to Melksham (and applicable to others) Town Council
Now before I answer points and questions, let me tell you that there are some excellent staff at Melksham Town Council, and you have elected some excellent councillors to represent you and in a body to direct decisions and operations of the staff, headed by a responsible officer - the Town Clerk - who answers to the council. The staff are paid employees, the Clerk recruited by the council and the rest of the staff recruited by the clerk or her senior team. The councillors are unpaid - not a penny - and we do not run expense accounts so if I print this out and give you a copy, I am paying for the paper and the ink.
I was very careful in what I said about excellent staff. That does not mean that they excellently cover every role which is thrust upon them, nor that every job of work that councillor's motions will create can find a staff member with the time, capability and motivation to do it, nor that (even if they have those three qualities) that they will necessarily be provided with the tools and organisational structure to do so.
Moving on from the staff - what about the councillors you have chosen? What motivates us? Who would WANT to be a councillor? Some see it as a stepping stone - an internship - for greater things such as standing for Wiltshire Council or even parliament. Some who are also Wiltshire Councillors (for which they receive financial compensation for their time) see it a way of consolidating support in their base promoting wider aspects. Some who are already active volunteers in the community see it being a way to help further, tempted perhaps by the suggestion by party/grouping leaders that "it's only a monthly meeting - you can do as little or as much beyond that as you like". Some had their own project motivation - specialist groups or interests they feel they can further forward by being a councillor. Perhaps some like the recognition and respect it brings them. And others who form parts of groupings might like the circle of close like-minded colleagues it brings them and the feeling of security that being in a group can bring. And there are those of us who stood and offered our services once we had retired and hopefully before we are too feeble and ga-ga to do anything. Something to keep us active into old age. What a wide collection of reasons - and there may be some I have missed - linked by a common arrogance to think that people might actually vote for us, and probably by a common lack of appreciation the first time around just how much work is involved if you want to do the job properly.
A Town (or parish) council has the power to charge a precept - a council tax on residents in its parish, and usually is the owner with responsivity for tangible assets in the area. And as a spender of the public purse and guardian of public assets, it comes under far greater scrutiny than any business would. This is both a blessing and a curse.
I ran a business - and I would judge it a success - in Melksham for several decades through to retirement. We had happy staff, happy and plenty of customers, and products that they wanted. All the folks involved were motivated as part of the team and we provided tools and training along the way and had good pastoral care for all involved. Just two of us as active directors but able to trust and very willing to listen to (and learn from) the team, the customers, and prospective customers too. We all "signed up" to a ten year strategy and, though tuned along the way, stuck with it. BUT we (or rather I, where the buck stops) made some mistakes. There were one or two items in our product range which didn't bring a return on investment / proved to not be what the customer wanted. A couple of folks who didn't fit in joined our team (briefly!) and we had to deal with the aftermath, and there were occasions where the hours worked far exceeded what we actually paid ourselves which was little enough anyway. But we loved what we did and we were all there to do more than just earn a wage.
So I have a great deal of business experience, but I would not want the overhead of having to run a Town or Parish Council. We gained so much from continuity - I understand that in the hospitality business there's a high staff turnover but we did not experience that. We had strategy, stability and strength of direction which is missing from a Town Council. Every spend is subject to scrutiny, every project that costs more than peanuts must be bid for, and every mistake will make the local press or social media. The chairman of the board (mayor) changes every year - or if you're lucky only every two years, and the whole board can change every four, with the selection process being a popularism one as your shareholders are the electorate - not because they choose to hold your shares, but because they happen to live here and are obliged to pay - something which seems designed to make them a bit resentful and crotchety. Into this mix (and it's the same for every parish) to need to add an amazing, motivating person as "head of service" who's "there" whenever needed, highly respected by all, and a great communicator who explains and tells it as it is, to all the shareholders, to the staff team, and to the board of directors who are likely to be pushing him/her for their own motivational reasons - see above - in a complex morass of laws and standing orders which are the rules of operation we set ourselves.
Nothing I have said so far is specific to Melksham Town Council ... but here we go ... in answer to Lisa's comments and questions on a Melksham News article
| In reading through these comments, I will stick to my suggestion that a better process for improving and maintaining town assets be implemented and followed. Typically, a survey of town residents will be sent out to ask what amenities people want. This is a good first step. Although this has sometimes been done, one problem I've witnessed seems to be stalled at this step. Send out questions, get feedback, ignore. New council. Send out questions, get feedback, ignore. New council. Send out questions, get feedback, ignore. New council. The kick in the teeth is sometimes quite a bit of money is spent on the surveys, only to never see light again. I'm not privy to the decision to have a dog agility area in the park, but I assumed it was a vanity project, rather than a survey result. (I put that out there to ask, rather than accuse because I owe an apology if my assumption is wrong.) |
Answer - not a bad characterisation. In 2021, the electorate kicked out many and returned 13 of 15 new councillors. There will always be a turnover, but I can think of four who stood again but were voted out. With two rather that six continuing (and both of those two with county as well as town interest at the time) there was going to be a lack of continuity. Early decisions were taken before the 13 of us newcomers really understood the whole complex setup and implications of those decisions, and a strategy meeting in the summer of 2021 did not result in any agreed plan for this four year council term; you could say we are rudderless.
Many surveys WERE done by the previous council and money spent on them - a very great deal of useful work, slightly tainted by being voted out (though much of it excellent stuff that should apply to whoever's in power). But, oh dear, I find it very hard to find things on the council's web site and the role / person who I interfaced with so well in 2019 and 2020 was declared redundant in 2021. That's not only the person going, but the job role going too, with much of his work no longer done at all, and the remnants being passed to staff who may be excellent, but perhaps not trained for, not enjoying, and not with the time or vision for the extra role foisted on them.
As an example, lots of work has previously been done on the Assembly Hall / Blue pool but it's darned hard to find - or it was until Lisa and I trawled web sites, asked questions, and collated at http://www.fomah.org.uk/library.html ... and, yes, there is similar data available for KGV but (oh my goodness!) you just try to find it!
| Another step in the process has been to select a project and go to a few companies who have served the council in the past and get a couple quotes. This is another step failure. I suggest a proper working group of 2 or 3 councillors and then up to 6 residents who have a strong interest and/or expertise in the subject. This working group to meet once per week (or more often) to nail down what is wanted/required within three weeks, to return to the next asset meeting for a decision to be agreed by council. The councillors on the working group can advise procedures and budget, but because they themselves are probably not experts in the field, the decisions are made by the working group as a whole. Only until a proper plan is in place can bids go out to contractors. If a concise outline is sent out to tender, it should be quite easy to get a return of quotes, and to then make a quick decision because you're basically looking at "for what you want, we will charge this amount and we can start on that date and it will take this long." And you have the benefit of knowing how much is in the budget, and how the timing works in your schedule. However, without a concise outline, contractors will either decide not to bid or they will send questions back. More delay. Timing is where another failure can happen. Quotes go out, but there's too much time in between decision meetings for the final proposal to come to a vote. After a while the contractors either lose interest, or the prices have gone up, and the vote has to go back to restart at Square One. Or, as often as had happened, an incomplete or vague outline is proposed and questions come back which are not answered. It's almost like someone shrugs and goes "well, I don't know; it wasn't my idea." And the whole thing gets moth-balled. Or, it goes ahead without proper consultation and advice from experts and it was too easy just to hire a company that has done stuff in the past but really hasn't done that thing before and wings it. And then you get a Dog Bark Fiasco. |
Answer: Yes - as it's the public purse, lots more scrutiny. Need for loads of quotes. A double edged sword; in our own business we could "phone a friend" or have the options reduced to just one on our own decision. The only option the council has is "ask the audience" and sometimes (sorry) you get a poor answer due perhaps to poor background, lobbying, consultation manipulation, audience selection, etc; the audience is a good barometer.
And while all this humming and ha-ing is going on, the prospective supplier gets tired of waiting, and wonder if it was worth him bidding. A kindness of getting a quote in at a good price for the slack season may then be accepted by the council for the busy season with "can you still match this quote" and "we must be ready for summer". From what I see, we (as a town council) may not have been good at getting back with specialists who provide us with quotations to keep them informed, and from some of the cheques and balances I have seen as a councillor, we are really not brilliant at paying on time either.
Not just Melksham (in fact not Melksham at all - MTC never did business with my Melksham based business!) but as a company with business all over the UK, at our "Well House Consultants" we were wary - very wary indeed - of bidding for local authority business. Some local authorities were even on "payment with order" (I have see others do that to MTC) and we knew that our credit terms of "pay within 28 days of completion" rarely actually happened. The money always came through, eventually.
| I can tell you from my own experience being on the Assembly Hall working group that all non-councillors have been told they have no vote on any decision. And the residents on the committee who have a strong interest and bring expertise to the project are ignored when making suggestions. And it's quite obvious from comments made in the past about the Assembly Hall that... Okay, just take a look at which councillors actually attend events at the Assembly Hall. Only one Assembly Hall working group meeting has been scheduled in all this time and that was only because a motion had to be made in full council -- practically begging to set one up. Look out for Fiasco Number Two. I want to make clear that I am not speaking for my husband who is a councillor. I attend council meetings, mostly by Zoom. My eyes are not closed to what happens in them. I do not witness a cohesive group of adults working together and transparently. No one reaches out for public advice. Nor do I see anyone holding their hand up to admit a mistake and then try to fix it. Problems don't get resolved, they just fester. |
Answer: This comment has caused some confusion online; I don't think that you were asking for public or specialist votes at full council. What WOULD make sense is to listen to and have the specialist knowledge that's ready, willing and available to various working groups having a full say in the decision process of working groups so that recommendations may be made by experts back to full council.
I don't know about the dog park - I am not on the Parks Working Group and whilst I could attend their meetings I must avoid being spread too thinly on a project which isn't even in my ward and where I have no vote. And whilst we have dogs, I am aware that greyhounds are not "normal" dogs.
On the Assembly Hall group - my goodness me - it has been frustrating and continues to be so. The council voted £10,000 be put aside for initial work on seeing if we should take on the joined Blue Pool with first step being a structural survey, and we delegated the task to the Town Clerk. Three months was allocated to the task in late spring last year, looking at option of saying "no, thank you" to Wiltshire Council who were offering it to us for a tiny sum, of buying it and repurposing it, or buying it, demolishing it and the Assembly Hall and buildings complete new structure. What went it to any future building (new or old) to be informed by the December '22 needs assessment survey and the February '23 "cluster 1" consultation.
So - six weeks into the three months and the Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall put up a business case for all three options, and an example of what could be done with the repurposing option - to be knocked back by various councillors - "this is for us / staff to do, not for you". Except that they had not done anything - apparently, the £10k vote had been to allocate the money, not to actually spend any of it.
Moving on through the Autumn, we found a surveyor and have a report to say that the buildings are not falling down and in goodish shape. So next stage - "what can we do, then". A brief was prepared and send out to a selection of architects - by a councillor, not by the expert friends though all their work was available to her, and naturally the architects invited have come back with some questions.
However, our clerk who's overall in charge hasn't been available for a while, and the Head of Operations has just lost both of the Assembly Hall managers and there's no resource to progress this until more staff are on board and in post; existing staff are doing a superb day to day job in the hall, but it's not practical to look forward until we have more resource. What we really need is an experienced project manager to take this on and do a proper job for us, but we don't even have the resource to get bids for that job. And in the meantime, I don't think anyone has gotten back to keep the architects informed. I may be wrong on that - our information systems are poor - good staff, tools and perhaps direction lacking - and for next year a reduced IT budget as well.
| Graham Ellis, Melksham, Independent - I apologise for speaking out of turn, and if this puts you in an awkward position. I speak as a Melksham resident who cares and sees tremendous potential but gets frustrated over wastage -- money and time. |
Answer: Quite the reverse - it's offered me a hook onto which to hang some explanations. I would caution you, though, that what I have written is purely my view as a councillor, based on what I see and public input (which is always welcome) and should not be assumed to be the view of any of my colleagues on the council, nor the staff there.
And let me be clear, we have an excellent set of staff at the "grass roots" level who are doing remarkaby with the tools and time they have. I thank them (if they read this) and can assure them of my support, which needs to be in helping provide them with what they need - time, training, tools ... support, structure and strategy.
Published Friday, 16th February 2024