Graham Ellis - my blog
Blue Pool, Canberra, Staff Budget, financial regulations
At last night's special full council meeting (30.9.2024) ...Blue Pool
A unanimous decision to go ahead and negotiate the purchase of the Blue Pool from Wiltshire Council, taking into account practical access to the building / site for the future over Wiltshire Council land, and giving Wiltshire Council a pedestrian right of way / right of public access over the pedestrian path to the Melksham Campus and to Melksham House. Much comment made to get the transfer made with all due haste, and in legal and local government terms that suggests within the next six months - in other words in time for the new council elected in May 2025 to have their full four years to move the project forward, and those of currently on the council to be able to point to the purchase as an achievement of our time in office.
There are multiple opportunities for the future of the to-be newly acquired Blue Pool. We could provide an expanded facility to meet the bursting needs of the Assembly Hall and overcome access, reception and bar issues amongst others there, providing museum, extra rooms to meet venue demand, and efficiency for staff. We could demolish and rebuild the whole indoor venue setup for the town, or provide a free car park instead. Or we could sell off the site for housing; not in line with the Neighbourhood Plan, but if the new government pressures / requires more housing, who knows?
Open area to rear of Canberra
A grant of just under £8,000 was agreed to help fund path provision prior to tree planting on the green field area that's held in trust as green space, and indeed is a designated green space in the draft neighbourhood plan too. Good call for the field, though the Council's stated policy is to improve all the various facilities at KGV so that the KGV park becomes ever more an outdoor venue for the whole of our community.
Staffing Budget
The Town Hall Staffing budget is already 66% spent and we are just five months into the financial year, and The Clerk requested that we transfer £120,000 from our reserves into the staffing budget. As promised papers to help explain this had not been provided to councillors, the decision was put off until next week's further additional full council meeting (18:45 on 8th October). I have questions about this and will feel much more comfortable if more fully informed, and indeed a public question was asked to which no answer was immediately available. Over half of the Town Council's budget is spent on staffing, though much of the detail is not in the public domain because of privacy issues; even councillors such as myself who are not part of the "inner sanctum" can only guess at times.
Other financial management systems
On a separate matter, the council adopted a new set of Financial Regulations / procedures, as recommended by the national organisation of local government officers. These are said to protect staff and councillors and reduce fraud (of which there is no suggestion to my knowledge in Melksham) but could add a significant onus / workload onto staff and councillors. Even under old "regs" it's been hard to get councillors available to sign things off in the Town Hall, and the paragraph above shown how staff too struggle to get information out in good time. Personally, I used to go to the Town Hall to sign off many of the bills and was often disappointed at how disjoined the system has been on placing orders, and also on how long it was taking us at times to pay suppliers. Indeed, I stepped back from being a signatory as my ability to attend in person was not what was required by staff. Last night, we discussed the potential ability for councillors to approve expenditures and accounts remotely which would be an excellent and sensible move, meaning that it could be done not only in person and during Town Hall working hours only, but also of an evening or weekend when one or more of us could go through scanned documents to check and approve them.
Council - tonight - Indoor venue future
This evening, 30th September 2024 at 19:00, a Special (extra) meeting of Melksham Town Council. On the agenda - Blue Pool and Assembly Hall "To receive information to date, to agree the transfer of ownership of the Blue Pool on the terms set out by Wiltshire Council and agree next steps. For Decision". The public are welcome to observe. There is a separate public participations session prior to the main agenda at which "Members of the public are invited to address the council".Melksham Assembly Hall is our indoor venue for the community with a wide range of all weather activities taking part there throughout the year - in a typical month there are between 25 and 30 lets and events taking place there, with anywhere from 15 to 1500 people going through the door. It's estimate that the number of entries though the door is in excess of 50,000 per annum, the majority of whom are residents of Melksham Town, but also with a footfall from surrounding parishes and further afield to bringing in people to our town's businesses and economy. The needs survey confirms what people would like to see for the future.
The Assembly Hall is booked to capacity. On two occasions this summer, I have away from my councillor role attempted to make a booking, but had to move away to another venue, and I am not alone in that experience. Events are popular - we already have events in November for which tickets are sold out, and on wider town events such as table sales, staff are on duty for queuing and crowd control purposes. Truly a success. And we are rebuilding an excellent - skilled and enthusiastic staff team. Where help is accepted by the council, community volunteer skills bring a great deal to the hall, and there is a desire in the community to help further.
But all is not perfect. The entrance to the hall between parked cars and vans in not attractive and causes some concerns, the reception and bar area are too cramped for maximum benefit and indeed constraining, facilities such as loos are limited, and staff are sometimes underused with just a single event space. The hall is old and maintenance in some areas has fallen behind, resulting in it looking a little tired although basically sound and with excellent internal facilities. At the least, it needs bringing up to modern environmental standard such as fitting with solar panels to reduce the significant ongoing utility costs.
Attached to the Assembly Hall and sharing a main wall is the "Blue Pool" - the former swimming pool which became redundant with the opening of the Melksham Campus. The swimming pool and equipment was past its economic life, but the building itself is in reasonable condition - a large area with great potential to meet the more practical desires of the needs survey, and providing the solution to many of the issues raised already. The presentation by the friends of Melksham Assembly Hall last year, and available in their library online, gave councillors a glimpse of what could be done. Some work has carried on, though with staff changes and other urgent priorities at Melksham Town Council the work on taking the Assembly Hall and Blue Pool forward - important but not yet urgent - has been on hold.
Wiltshire Council - the current owner of the Blue Pool - has offered to sell it to the Town Council for s token amount, and we have to make a decision as to whether to take it. But that token amount payment would just be the start of something. We have options in a major decision.
1. We could purchase the Blue Pool, with (please) careful negotiation to ensure that we get he correct boundary line / walls, access, and take over and initial expenses to the county. We then have the opportunity over the life of the next council to expand the needed indoor provision with a new fit for purpose reception, catering and meeting area, loos, etc, with a a re-opening of access from the attractive and appropriate new reception area (no longer through parked cars!) to a hall with expanded adjunct facilities, a new smaller and tiered theatre area and cafe, a museum for Melksham, a reception area for all MTC enquiries as well as looking after catering and hires of all venues based there. The cost of doing this would be significant, though not in excess of the £2.1 million that MTC was prepared to pay for Melksham House at its March 2023 meeting - so it's feasible and within thoughts
2. We could purchase and rebuild the whole Assembly Hall and Blue Pool site, probably at a cost of ten times that of option 1. Loan funding would be available for us to do this, with repayment from an increased council tax over the next 20 to 30 years. There is information on this in your agenda pack for tonight, and options are many and varied. The timescale is such that we would be looking at this over coming years and at this stage further options form architects who have been approached and are waiting to hear from us are explored.
3. We could say "no thank you" to Wiltshire Council. And that would limit our future provision having decided not to take on the expanded footprint. Such a decision would not remove the ongoing costs of maintenance and continuation - or of closure and replacement / demolition of the Assembly Hall. It would mean that we have no say on the future of the Blue Pool which, we believe, Wiltshire Council would demolish with undefined and perhaps catastrophic outcomes for the Assembly Hall part of the overall building.
"For decision" says the agenda with 100 pages of supporting material - and there are some 70 different documents on the friends web site too. But this evening, I believe that what we need to decide is:
a) Whether to negotiate the purchase of the Blue Pool, via the appointment of a professional project lead / negotiator should we not have such a person on our team.
b) To instruct or allow to instruct that project lead to investigate further and bring back through council the ongoing project helping us as we decide between the various outcomes and details in (1) and (2), and to recommend ongoing operational directions to meet the needs of the community for both facility and event provision and for prudent financial outcome - a business plan which may or may not be direct development and operation by the Town Council, community groups, commercial operations or those in combination
c) To set aside a four figure sum in the current year's budget to cover additional insurance, security and other immediate costs for the Blue Pool from takeover should it complete before April 2025 though to end of the current financial year.
The last five years have been tough for public halls and venues such as ours. A revision of some of the interim risk-averse hire policies that were appropriate during the covid recovery period will put us in a far firmer financial base and we should look forward with this indoor venue in appropriate parallel with out outdoor KGV venue, and with s much lighter cost on the council tax payer than our outdoor facilities.
We have a great opportunity here - to take Melksham Forward, or to signal the beginning of the end of our provision to meeting the needs identified in our community. I commend to you a decision this evening to purchase the Blue Pool, with eyes open to the work to be done ahead and the opportunities if we all pull together.
Published Monday, 30th September 2024
Assembly Hall, Blue Pool, Canberra Community Park - decisions next Monday
A special/extra full Melksham Town Council meeting has been called for next Monday (30th September 2024). On the agenda "Blue Pool and Assembly Hall (Pages 1 - 110) To receive information to date, to agree the transfer of ownership of the Blue Pool on the terms set out by Wiltshire Council and agree next steps. For decision." and "Canberra Community Park (Pages 111 - 112) To agree to pay the sum of £7988.00 (£6657.00 plus £1331.00 VAT) to 4Youth for the installation of pathways in The Canberra Community Park. For decision."
A period of public participation will take place during the meeting. The Press and Public are welcome to attend this meeting.
The full agenda (published at lunchtime on 24th September) includes over 100 pages on the Blue Pool and Assembly Hall may be viewed / read / downloaded at https://moderngov.microshadeapplications.co.uk/MelkshamTC/documents/g1097/Agenda2030th-Sep-2024%2019.0020Council.pdf?T=0
These are major decisions. Taking the next step on the future direction for the Assembly Hall and Blue Pool is long overdue and you can read from over 100 pages of text the documents from the last five years which, however have not been taken forward for the best part of a year and need to be acted on. In contrast, the Canberra Community Park came to us on Monday of this week with indecent haste; having now had 48 hours to read and consider the data, it does seem to make sense for the Town Council to provide the requested support.
Published Tuesday, 24th September 2024
Report on HIGH PRIORITY, MTC projects
Here are the 41 Melksham Town Council projects (out of over 100) that are described as "High Priority" at present. 27 of them are described as "Next Steps Required" on the spread sheet which is in the agenda pack for tonight, most of the rest "In Progress".The 50 page agenda pack is on the Town Council's website, but I have mirrored the 5 vital pages [here] so you can read about projects with which you are concerned. Please note that this list is dated the week before last, as due to MTC officer unavailability last week it had to be done early.
2. Allotment Audit and Management
3. Allotments- Water Troughs
6. Assembly Hall Refurbishment
7. ATBShop Skate Events (2024)
9. Awdry Avenue Play Area
11. Blue Pool Acquisition
12. BMX Pump Track
13. Bowmans Court Lighting
17. Church Street Toilets Transfer
27. Floral Phone Boxes
30. Green Flag Status for KGV
33. Joint Cemetery Strategy
37. KGV Eco Loos Conversion
40. KGV Masterplan
41. KGV Sensory Garden
42. KGV Signage
54. Melksham East Community Centre
58. Newsletter
61. Play Area Signage
62. Play Area Strategy
63. Project Assurance Sub-Committee and/or Project Action Plan
64. Proms in the Park (2024)
67. Recruitment of Assembly Hall Staff
68. Recruitment of Deputy Town Clerk
69. Recruitment of Events & Community Development Officer
70. Recruitment of Part Time HR Officer
71. Remembrance (2024)
75. Rivermead School Parking
78. Safeguarding Policy
80. Skate Park Signage
85. Splash Pad Resurfacing
86. Splash Pad Signage
87. Staffing Structure
88. Street Trees
90. Town Centre CCTV
94. Town Hall Clock
95. Town Hall Flag Flying and Lights Policy Update
98. Website Structure
99. Website Upgrade
100. Wiltshire Towns Programme Funding
101. Youth Advisory Board
Also on the agenda tonight, but not on the council's high priority list, are other items such as the Neighbourhood Plan, Canberra Community Park, the A350 underpass, and Town Hall opening hours.
Running a Town Council is like trying to put a complicated jigsaw together, and one on which some pieces are missing and have to be made afresh, and others keep popping out.
We have some excellent officers at Melksham Town Council - BUT we have not had an active Town Clerk, Deputy Clerk, HR person, RFO, or Strategic Planner for "years", nor a community and events officer through the busy summer. Current locums in the clerk and RFO roles are working on and through a backlog but it's far from instant and neither has the Melksham experience base (though they have excellent role experience) and it will take time to do that, during which time everyone wants THEIR job prioritising, and more gets added to the list too. Key in the list above is "recruitment" which has progressed even from the report 10 days ago. Even that is not a quick fix as even the most excellent of new arrivals will be learning in and picking up the reins. We all (councillors, other staff, residents) all need to be helpful and considerate as we move forward, resisting the temptation to unreasonably pressure members of the team.
UPDATE from the Council meeting. I am informed that the inclusion of the project matrix in public domain as was done within this agenda pack is not something that will be repeated. It is regarded as "micromanagement" and the knowledge that it would be in the public domain would discourage staff from putting information on it. There are plans / thoughts to include an edited version on a new web site - item no. 99 on the list above.
Published Monday, 23rd September 2024
Update on some Melksham projects
A dozen questions I have been asked with a "what is happening" theme ...
1. Movement of the Avon War memorial
- Planned to be in time for Remembrance, but is turned out to have far deeper foundations than expected. Not sure where that stands today - 15th September 2024 – but has been brought to the attention of councillors with the help of social media and the BBC - ((link here)).
2. Opening of the footpath to The Oak
- Awaiting a report on the wildlife effect of the path and the lighting. Not sure if there's a chance that this report may raise issues that require mitigation and how long the project will then take.
3. Real Time Information in the bus stops
Already installed near "The Pilot" and working well. Promised "by the end of August" in the Market Place and at the King's Arms but not there on Saturday 14th September.
4. Opening of Rocket Road
Requires completion of light controlled pedestrian crossing, surfacing, and conclusion of paperwork in view of public input on speed limits, with clear signage to be in place prior to opening
5. Planning application for the upside yard
This one has been quiet for a couple of years in the public domain while issues relating to potential flooding have been modelled and confirmed to be all in order.
6. Buying the Blue Pool
MTC really should be getting a move on. This is one of the most important things for the future, but not being picked up by the job role charged with doing so over a year ago.
7. Opening Melksham House
Give this another couple of months - I have heard grumbles that it should have been open at the start of the school year. Yes, that would have been logical but recruiting staff, etc, takes time.
8. Phone Box as Library
We have a couple of phone boxes for re-use. Illustrative pictures show them in use in Weymouth and Bicester Village - Melksham following along.
9. Town Council priorities
Full Town Council meetings have been reduced to every 2 months (except an extra has now been added in early October to confirm the neighbourhood plan) and we now have a "task and finish group" of all councillors that meets in closed session to take things forward without "showboating" for the public audience.
10. Water to alottments
Not sure what's happening on this one - main issue related to Audley Road where the water supply is a long way from the far end of the site. Not such an issue over the winter, but it would make sense to sort it out for the summer.
11. Town Centre loos / Pet Larder
This is in negotiation with Wiltshire Council, or should be. I think it fell between the two stools of agreeing to look in principle and actually doing something;
12. Why do things take so long
Things have gotten so complex and where the public purse and an organisation with great aspirations from 15 volunteer councillors requests far more that the limited team we have can easily handle, it's not going to be easy. MTC does not have a permanent Town Clerk nor a deputy, and that has been the situation "de facto" for over a year. We need someone with a strong local knowledge and drive and even when appointed such a person would need significant lead in time, and then time to pick up the backlog - and would need to be able to deliver blunt reality on some aspirations, and yet being motivational. Such people are, though, rare as hen's teeth, especially when they also need a formal qualification in clerking to take on the role. Full credit to our locums - Heather and now Tracy - but their role has been and is very much to keep the ship afloat and off the rocks, and not to captain it to the destinations we wish to reach.
Published Saturday, 14th September 2024
A350 Subway, Legal public art wall?
Art is in the eye of the beholder. What is "street art" and what is graffiti? We have had concern for years at the state of decoration of the subway under the A350 in Melksham. Tired decoration a decade ago was painted over as a blank canvas for new artwork, but that never happened and those white walls have been a temptation for unauthorised and unregulated additions - commonly known by names such as "graffiti" and "tagging" ever since, with a battle between the decorators and Wiltshire Council to keep the subway decent and friendly. Several groups and organisations have proposed ideas and made initial suggestions, but none of those has been carried through to realisation.
I was in Swindon for a meeting yesterday, with an interest in the bus boulevard project and how it's going to work amongst other matters, and was struck by some of the artwork and how inspiring and welcoming it can be. But also very much aware of the maintenance issues associated with it and which have been such a concern that they have held proposals back ("who's going to look after that" and "but it will get damaged / vandalised").
Wiltshire Council are proposing a "Pilot to trial legal walls in Wiltshire - proposed use of A350 underpass" which comes to full Town Council on Monday 23rd September - 6 pages in the agenda pack which has been published unusually early on the Town Council's web site.
It IS a pilot scheme and on that basis something of an experiment. If the artists can take ownership of their own work in, look after it and limit it to areas in such a way that it looks good, it could be a win-win. I do look at the list of requirements placed or suggested by Wiltshire Council - common sense things like keeping it decent, and not personally naming / attacking people, as well as no political posting and more. Those of us who blog or look after online groups are very much aware of these natural restrictions, and also aware of the need to police the restrictions when overstepped - accidentally, or otherwise.
Published Friday, 13th September 2024
Melksham - Housing and Public Transport Development
I "dropped in" as a member of the public on line to the Melksham Without Parish Council meeting last night, via Zoom, as they had several agenda items of interest that align with my strategic planning interest.Land Supply for building - and what it means
An interesting discussion on land supply for development, informed by councillors Alford and Holder from Wiltshire Council. I have found this difficult to follow in the past, but last night explained the system rather better. If you want to build new houses, you need land to be available for them. And that is the "land supply" figure - land approved for development across the county. There are some 18,000 planned homes already approved, which at a build rate of 2,000 per annum would give you - you would think - a nine year "land supply",
But it doesn't work like that. Many of the approved sites are no longer of interest to the developers - reference made to a big Persimmon site in Trowbridge, where economy changes mean that building there in the next few years in unlikely, and the issues is so big that around a half of the sites with planning permission are not included in the official land supply figures. So it's not a nine year land supply - it's less than five years.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) looks ahead, somewhat arbitrarily, to five years and requires local authorities to have a five year land supply (why not 3? - why not 8?), and if the local authorities fail to deliver that, there's a presumption that developers can get planning approval for green fields outside the local plan. In other words, new estates of houses that don't jell with the areas on which they are located, and with less or little thought to supporting infrastructure, but at a greater potential profit to the developers.
So Wiltshire through its efforts have allowed through the planning system something approaching twice the number of new homes wanted - only to find that the house builders aren't happy with that and want to build at location of maximum profit, and they can do that just by saying they're not happy with what they've already been given.
It gets "worse". The new government is in the process of revising housing numbers and the NPPF, and the number of new homes in the county looks like it's up from 2,000 to 3,700 per annum. I am not personally averse to more housing - perhaps even in our own back yard - but it needs to be planned for the future. Which makes the local plan and the neighbourhood plan all that much more important. What legal weight those plans will have, we need to "wait" and see but yet NOT wait - progress and get them finalised with some haste. And at the same time, if we miss deadlines we will still be very powerfully informed to work within the future systems.
Plan for Rail - Wiltshire
MWPC members had taken a look at the Network Rail Wiltshire Plan for Rail and found much to support. The draft report looks forward to the provision of an hourly train service each way at Melksham, facilitated by a loop to allow trains to pass each other on the long single line section between Chippenham and Trowbridge. It looks forward to electrification of the line though Melksham, which makes sense sooner rather than later, encouraged by the heavy freight on the line, to the extension of the services to Bedwyn on to Devizes, and the provision of a Bristol to Oxford service. These latter enabling new stations at Devizes Gateway and Corsham too. A good report, making common sense, with priorities which include - early - improvements through Melksham. I'm delighted to see MWPC having it on their agenda and adding their support.
Last night, the "Plan for Rail" was not linked to land supply and development but yet these two items should not be considered in isolation. Rail is mass transit, and a growing Melksham becomes all the more necessary. We have moved from 3,000 journeys per annum to 70,000 in the last decade, but the figure should be 400,000 even on current population. Move the service to an appropriate and reliable level, and provide joined up transfers (such as a connecting bus) to the station and that can be achieved - not as a goal itself, but as something for the good of the economy of the area and the people who live here. With housing we should expect, we should be planning for at least half a million journeys a year, and that's before you add a full million of through passengers from Swindon and Chippenham to Trowbridge, Westbury and beyond
On service reliability
I have been - embarrassed - to promote rail travel this summer. The timetable offers some excellent opportunities, but trains have not been running to timetable. This weekend just gone was typical for the holiday period, with just seven out of 14 trains each way running and enormous failings with seven cancelled on the day.
All cancellations were explained as "shortage of train crew" ... for which initial responsibility has to be taken by our train operator - "Great Western Railway" - a part of the First Group.
Melksham Without Parish Council had on their agenda - at my request for the Melksham Transport User Group - a request to write to GWR, express severe concern, and request action to return cancellation rates from 50% to less that 2%. It's not just about the weekend just gone - very occasionally there will be a bad day; it's an ongoing issue with short notice cancellations, week after week.
The official letter will be sent. Will it make any difference? It may well, but I doubt it will result in the service being fixed in coming months. It helps put Melksham, officially, on the radar. It reminds First Group that they can't just ignore us as if we were a little village with the occasional person travelling. But then ... the commercial operation of rail services here ends next year with "nationalisation" when the First contract reaches a break point next May, so should they care? We have to be careful how we handle this and ensure we minimise damage caused by appalling unreliability at present, and also make sure that we are partners with rail and government officials for the future.
And in summary
The rail items were moved up the agenda for me - THANK YOU to MWPC for that, and I left the meeting soon after they were covered. Part of me wanted to stay around to listen and watch the rest of the meeting which was fascinating, but having had the items moved up I felt in more polite to leave than to stay.
Published Tuesday, 10th September 2024
Asking us for money? Please show up!
Monday's Town Council Finance Committee meeting agenda includes applications for grants from • Back on Track - Stroke Rehab Service, • Melksham Community Larder, • Melksham Foodbank, • Melksham Music Festival Ltd, • Splash - Community First Wiltshire, • Wessex MS Therapy Centre and • Youth Adventure Trust, • with some 56 pages of backup data / forms and evidence provided by those organisations. The grant meetings are held in public (that may not have been clear in the past) and it's a rather good idea for the organisations who are asking for money from the council to come along to show an interest and to be available to answer any questions that may arise. In fact it seems a bit silly to do all that paperwork and then miss out the final step of being there to ensure it's properly understood.
P.S. There is no rule that you must show ... more friendly advise!
Having recommended that you (if you are applying) go, I have to admit that I won't be there. I am no longer on that committee and will be attanding a different meeting at the campus where there's an agenda item I wish to talk to looking forward at aspects across Melksham for the next decade.
Footnote comment on Facebook: "Melksham Town Council hands out a number of grants to local organisations and four times a year the Finance committee meets to decide which of the application it will accept in full, which it will partly fund and which it will reject. It makes huge sense for the Town Council to help "seed" new group and in a few instances to support them routinely for the good they bring to the town. Groups receiving grants are asked to feed back annually ... and it makes sense to turn up to the meeting where you're asking for money in the first place too."
Published Saturday, 7th September 2024
Melksham Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan
Here is my submission, going in today, following from my 31st July blog
From: Graham Ellis, a Melksham Town Councillor for South Ward
To: Wiltshire Council, f.a.o Kingsley Hampton.
Subject: Consultation Input / Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan
Date: 5th September 2024
Sirs,
Thank you for your invitation to make comment in consultation on the Melksham Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure plan (LCWIP) by close of business on 6th September 2024. A great deal of hard work has gone into the preparation of your document and I commend and thank all of those involved with it at Wiltshire Council and with your consultants.
The LWCIP is a detailed document, and Melksham Without Parish Council (MWPC) have spent some considerable time and resource reviewing it for you. They have provide the Town Council with a copy of their response, and it was discussed at the Melksham Town Council's (MTC) Economic Planning and Development meeting on 27th August. It was agreed to offer the Town Council's support to the MWPC response and to thank them for all their hard work in the local review. However, it should be noted that we are separate parishes and MWPC cannot (and has not sought) to speak on behalf of MTC, nor vice versa.
It is uniquely appropriate for travelling around to be in the joint sphere of interest of both parishes and all wards of both Melksham Local Councils, and for planning for their future to be under the auspices of a joint community body such as the Melksham Neighbourhood Plan, into which both councils have invested heavily financially, and I commend the views and inputs in the Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan II. Please also see the Town Council’s “Priority for People” reports which includes hundreds of responses on local travel.
The LCWIP is a county rather than parish initiative, and I encourage you to take into consideration any inputs received from Unitary councillors Alford, Holder, Hubbard, Oatley, Sankey and Seed.
Melksham Town Council has encouraged responses to the LCWIP consultation through including the matter in public papers, and I personally have publicised it. However, we do not have qualified staff with resource to go through the detail as a separate exercise to the neighbourhood plan. I will add comment below to reflect my own inputs and comments from others. Please bear in mind that I am not an infrastructure or travel planning expert, though I do cycle and walk locally.
You are welcome to share my input to this consultation and my contact details and to contact me further as appropriate.
Specific input points
1. Melksham is a town that has changed a great deal since the 2011 census, which is the latest evidence base you had available for some of the plan. For example, the walk and cycle to school metrics in 2011 still reflected the George Ward site on the road to Bath, whereas the secondary school is now on the road to Devizes and with severe pavement overcrowding between The Spa and the school on the busy A365 at school start and finish times.
2. The movement from the consultation 6 months ago that routed passage from the Bowerhill area to the Town Centre away from Spa Road back onto Spa Road makes sense. Walkers and cyclists were unlikely to take the suggested alternative routes which added substantially to the distances to be covered, and under human power would have been resisted / ignored. However that does not make Spa Road safe, and I welcome the identified need for interventions there. Both reduction in volume and slowing of powered vehicle travel on Spa Road should be encouraged, in addition to works to make it more suitable for walking and cycling.
3. Maybe outside Wiltshire Council's remit and in that hands of commercial operators, but there are quite a number of places in Melksham which lack stands or otherwise to lock cycles to. The Morrisons on Pembroke Road and Subway on the A350 Beanacre Road are just examples.
4. Public transport use in Melksham has grown significantly [since the 2011 stats base] with passenger journeys to and from Melksham Station up from 3,000 per annum to 75,000 per annum in intervening years, and bus services changed. On a Sunday at the time of the census, there were just 12 bus departures whereas now there are 40, the latest increase being jogged by the service this summer being full and standing to the extent than passengers were being left behind. Good WALKING route to buses and WALKING AND CYCLING routes to the station are important. This includes access to the station from Foundry Close (see point 7), and making the underpass on the A350 onto the old Bath Road more attractive
5. Future developments in Melksham may include a new bypass to the east of the town. A new bypass would relieve pressure on the current A350 through Beanacre out to the Semington bypass and the plan should take advantage of potential reduced traffic flows. In particular, the Challeymead bridge over the river is currently unsuitable for walking and cycling and steps should be taken to make it safe and useful for such traffic from Hazelwood Road through to the Farmers Roundabout, sooner if not later.
6. Future developments may include the Wilts and Berks canal passing through the town once again, and the LWCIP should be compatible with the support of such a re-opening. In particular, walking and cycling links to Lacock which are currently poor should be improved.
7. With regards the consultation questions, I concur with the common view of public inputs so far that the Town Centre to the Railway Station and the Town Centre via Spa Road to the Oak School and to Pathfinder Way should be the priorities of your routes for both cycling and walking. In addition, the part of MC13 and MW15 which links the railway station to Foundry Close should also be prioritised as a quick win, opening a major new walking and cycling flow.
Thanking you once again for your hard work on the LCWIP and your consideration. See https://grahamellis.uk/blog1308.html & https://grahamellis.uk/blog1344.html
Graham Ellis
48 Spa Road, Melksham - 07974 925 928
https://grahamellis.uk - graham@sn12.net
My emailling policy: https://grahamellis.uk/email
Published Thursday, 5th September 2024
What is TravelWatch?
Public questions ..."I would like couple more buses as they get to full in mornings and after work". "I for one will be sad if we lose the £2 bus fares. That's what encouraged my husband and I to ditch the car." How are those questions answered?
Who are TravelWatch and what do they do?
TravelWatch SouthWest is an independent organisation representing all users of public transport in the South West of England. Membership is open to any not-for-profit organisation representing the interests of users or potential users of public transport. TravelWatch holds regular general and special meetings in a central location in the South West and online, that inform and debate issues of interest and concern to public transport user groups.
Let me put that more colloquially - public transport is complicated and there are a lot of experts around. Passengers and potential passengers are very bright and thoughtful, but they are not transport experts - they will know their local issues and what they would like to see, but there is a natural chasm between industry experts, government regulators and users and our TravelWatch facilitates explanations in both directions for the benefit of all "sides" so they become far less "sides" and far more partners working together for a better, more appropriate network.
TravelWatches formed from the Transport Users Consultative Committees (I tell you that because it gives a further idea of what they do) in various regions in the UK. There is a very active TravelWatch in the North West and also in London which, however, has a different and statutory base.
So TravelWatch SouthWest has a paid secretariat staff and a volunteer board of ten directors, most of us people of long experience in the public transport and spatial planning fields from across the South West and with a mixture of majoring in buses and trains. As a board we meet, usually online for a steer every couple of months and we learn, inform, analyse reports and make comments prior to and during consultations. Characteristics of public transport updating is that it is a process that takes a very long time, and spreads very widely across the region, where a changed in one street may have implication right across the region.
Why do we do it at TravelWatch SouthWest?
Well - no-one else does! There's a hideously complex array of organisations - private, public and community, official, and unofficial and causing some of the very confusion I described above of who to contact about what if you want to make effective solutions for the future, or if you are a local or central government or rail or bus industry professional or planner looking to communicate with and learn from your customer base effieicntly.
This is something of a theoretic post, so far - so let me write you a TravelWatch Director's view / comment on those two questions we started with
Question: "I would like couple more buses as they get to full in mornings and after work".
Answer: OK - you are heard, but there are many issues to be addressed. Providing seats costs money, and providing more seats to be used just for two journeys a day is horrendously expensive, and everyone wants those seats at the same time. Where you have heavy school and employment flows which co-inside in the morning it makes it a double peak. The afternoon with schools finishing before work is less of a problem.
You also need to bear in mind that if your working day is 8 hours and you have journey to and from home, including your walk to and from "the office" of an hour, you get on the bus in the morning 10 hours before you get off in the evening, even assuming that the buses run at exactly at the time you need. Remember that the driver has to start his route earlier, and be even earlier from the depot, and later in the evening. So it's s long day, drivers are expensive and in short supply, have working hours regulations for safety's sake, and typically dislike split shifts.
There you are - the troubles of being a bus operator. You may find a capacity improvement can be achieved by putting on a bigger vehicle such as double decker and indeed that has people raise other issues about why there's a big bus on quiet runs during the day - it does make sense commercislly.
The answer could go on looking at senior bus pass times and how they help the loading, and looking at evening provision which brings in another metric,
Question: "I for one will be sad if we lose the £2 bus fares. That's what encouraged my husband and I to ditch the car."
The £2 bus fare has done some good - however not as much as might have been desired (I do have some figures). It was never advertised as more that a temporary thing to help chance people's habits as the subsidy / funding is, I believe, substantial. Cynically, it was always going to be extended by a government headed for a general election so that the incoming government - whichever party is was - would be able to take an unpopular decision with 4 years for the public to forget.
What are the options for the government? They could make a long term policy decision to continue to offer journeys at a fixed £2. They could put a higher cap on. They could have a cap increase at intervals (annually?) to it ends over time, but keeps repeating the bad news at each rise. And then you also need to consider then your passenger numbers will drop and so doubling the price will far from double the money taken at the farebox.
There is another option to move away from s minimum flat fare to have them mileage based. Say £1.50 + 20p per mile - puts Melksham to Bath up to £3.50, for example. But that start to make the whole fare collection and understanding much harder and leads to arguments as to whether the milage is the distance the bus goes, or the distance the bus WOULD go if it didn't wander all around the housing areass. (Subject for another day - route optimisation ...)
No easy solution there; I have offered you options - you tell me what you think. My personal preference would be to take the final option and apply it to trains too / perhaps consideration for return fares and a loyalty scheme across public transport. Reasons - subject for yet another day!
Image - at a TravelWatch SouthWest meeting in Taunton
Published Wednesday, 4th September 2024