Graham Ellis - my blog
Which councillors actually attend meetings? - Subbing
It's common practise for councillors to stand in for one another at committee meetings. Committee meetings are usually scheduled well in advance (for the whole year) so, really, when we join a committee we should be able to plan our diaries around them but there ARE circumstances that arise late on, very much like occasional absences from work in employment for - for example - medical or urgent family matters.The system (know as subbing) makes sense for occasional use, allowing a grouping on the council to be formally represented at committee meetings, typically, by another member of that grouping who can then vote and help the meeting have its minimum number (quorum) to proceed.
You'll find it very rare indeed for me to appoint a "sub". I have tried, and so far succeeded, in making most meetings. Partly due to my only serving on committees I have the time for, partly because I make a point of "zooming" in even when out of town (though that means I cannot vote or be part of the quorum, and some chairs choose not to call remote speakers) and partly through my good fortune in not having other health or similar matters come up.
"Subbing" as a common practise worries me. It can routinely place councillors, selected by a private arrangement between two of them, into a decision making position where they are not as familiar as the proper member with the topic. Perhaps it's a bit strong for me to suggest it's an afront to our democracy - the electorate can see which councillors are on which committee to lobby them on matters arising, but what good is that when a different councillor turns up at the meeting?
Of course, it's never that simple:
1. There's no "subbing" at Full Council - all councillors are there in their voting rights and so there's no-one available to stand in
2. The Staffing Committee is NOT open to all councillors to attend, and those of us not on that committee have only the vaguest idea (if any) of what's going on
3. Working Groups have no authority - unlike Committees which have delegated powers. Each differs, but usually any councillor can attend if (s)he knows about them. As I see it, little point in asking a colleague to formally "sub", but it is done - there's a cast around going on for a Park Working Group sub as I write to come in (evening of 19th) and help make recommendations for the parks and leisure areas.
4. Meetings dates are planned for the year (good) and but occasionally extras are necessary to consider urgent matters. These have (in my view) become less that "occasional" to the detriment of the good sweet running flow and full representation we should have; I cannot attend a late-called meeting on the evening of 20th, for example.
We're halfway through our four year term, and who could have predicted their personal circumstances for September 2023 in March 2021? So some seepage is only to be expected - but it's sad that we've been having trouble being quorate at our meetings.
Councillor Records from election (May 2021 to September 2023)
Data in the public domain from the Melksham Town Council web site; I have chosen to delete the councillor's names as I'm writing in general, though I have left my own name there as I'm happy to share my own record and face comment.
Although I criticize routine "subbing" above, make no bones, there is an awful lot of dedication to cause there - 982 meetings attended and if they average 2 hurs then at minimum wage that would cost £20464.88 even before you count travel and preparation time. But they're not minimum wage - they're all volunteers and they do it for you for free.
Now - a bit of a game for those of you "in the know" - shown are all 13 councillors who were elected in May 2021 and remain councillors today. Can you work out of guess who's who?
It's not all about council meetings though - it's also about preparing for those meetings, being involved with resultant and other council activity, and listing to the public and keeping them informed too.
P.S. Meeting invites - 1248, so about three out of four attended on average. One councillor in particular who is on a lot of committees has managed an astonishing 94% attendance and that pulls the average up - I would suggest that the six councillors who are below 80% could do better. Four are at or over 85% and that is (in my view) a realistic target when taking on a council role.
Yes - you can!
"I often feel that we can’t change things ..." writes a correspondent not happy with some of the Town Council activities, or apparent lack of activities and their consequences.I have good news and bad news.
The good news is that you can influence decisions and that will change things. And the bad news is that by the time most of the choices come to the attention of the wider public, they've already been made and any veneer of consultation is just that - a veneer to help make the outcome look as if it's community supported.
I have been thinking this through over many years and here are some notes:
- Get in early
- Stick at it; be there to help implement the fruit of your labour.
- Look a long way ahead, but learn from the history behind you
- have a strategy which lets you make tactical decisions easy and efficient
- Be trustworthy and partner with others
- Study those who take a different approach to yours to understand why
- Motivate and respect those you work with and understand their motivation
- Offer solutions not criticism
- Be clear and consistent in your ask
- Understand the issues and address them all
- Where others have made a decision, respect it and support them
- Have a good case and don't overplay it
- Smile when something gets pushed back; understand why and have a plan "B"
- Make sure that what you seek works not just for now but into the future
- Research and earn technical respect
- Be prepared to admit errors and explain occasional changes of position
- Listen to others and put yourself in their shoes
- Use time wisely and think "why am I doing this"
- Don't over-bug people
- Have a partner / significant other who supports you but can challenge you
- Play it as a game - though the outcome may be far from a game!!
- Have fun, enjoy friends an enjoy the mental challenge!
Sorry - a bit (or should I say "a lot") preachy. I was sitting on the train last night and started writing up. These things can be pretty darned hard and readers who know me will be able to find copious examples where I fall short of what I'm suggesting.
Success may be nothing - it may be the maintenance of the Status Quo
Success may not be noticed - it may creep up on you and just be there
Success will almost inevitably be a team effort
Success may not be notified to you and you may not even know
Success will be claimed by others, some of who's contribution you'll question
Failure is the absence of success as yet
So - where do you start if you want to change things? Look at what is up and coming and not what is coming towards a conclusion. Choose things you have a passion for. I am resisting the temptation to come up with my own examples - but let's just say I'm feeling celebratory today. Much to be thankful for - but briefly before planning the next phases ... and in that personal celebrations comes public feedback to direct that next phase.
Published Sunday, 17th September 2023
Rail Conference - and looking ahead for Melksham Trains
Yesterday, I attended GWR's Community Rail Conference in Swindon - excellent day, with a lot of follow up - initial copies below.It's 10 years since we stepped up from 2 to 8 trains each way per day, and since then we have worked with GWR to promote and tune services. Busy trains to Swindon yesterday as I used the service to get to and from the conference (pictured). But they could have been much busier - we have moved from a useless service to a poor but usable one and in the next 10 years (or can we do it in five?) we still have a lot of work to do. Of local Melksham concern:
* Service frequency and reliability
* Easier ticketing and fares system
* Feeling of wellbeing and support at the station
* "Last mile" links by bus to homes, town centre and businesses
* Marketing and information within Melksham to encourage service use
Dear all - Melksham Rail Interest
Following on from yesterday's very useful GWR Community Rail Conference in Swindon, I have dropped a "Thank you" letter to the organisers - heart-felt as they did an excellent job and they (GWR and indeed Network Rail) are in the difficult position of being the messengers and implementors for the Government, who's agenda is not entirely beneficial for the rail industry, passengers, business development and the environment.
I / we work well with the people at GWR, and as the people I'm writing to are also the ones we work with throughout the year, I have allowed myself to stray into a look ahead to the future, describing objectives for coming years. Something of a personal view - from Melksham as I was there representing the town's community group. It's ten years in December since our service stepped up from 2 trains a day to a train every 2 hours, and passenger journeys have risen from 3,000 to 75,000 per annum. But that's still an order of magnitude below the numbers they should be for a town of our size. The issues as to why are summarised in my letter
So what for the next ten years? Do have a read of what I have written to GWR, and please feel free to share the email and this cover.
Graham
Dear Tom, Stacey, Jane, and please share this email to the rest of the GWR team and wider if useful,
THANK YOU for running the conference at Steam yesterday, and for the invite and letting me attend. It was truly, excellently informative and a wonderful opportunity to network both with GWR contacts and friends who support rail through local government, community rail and wider channels. One of the most useful such events I have attended over the years.
As well as a "Thank you", an apology to those of your colleagues I gave a difficult time over issues such as the future of fares and ticket purchase, of service reliability, and of last mile links to and from my local station (Melksham, Wiltshire, urban area population around 23,000). I have a passion to represent these services, have been and remain a keen partner to grow them and their use - sometimes that comes across as me being difficult but I am in it for the town and the residents, and not to be high in the "popular partner" stakes; I do wish to be high in the "we can work together, long term" stakes, mind you.
Rail Industry professionals and organisations are in a "squeezed" position at present, with decisions that would have been in your hands in the past now in the hands of central government, and with some of those decisions they are taking being uncomfortable ones. The start of the 2020s have been a time of unprecedented change with so many external factors rocking the boat (or is that derailing the trains?) and on top of that an admission that a number of mature structures such as franchising and the fares system are past their sell-by date - may have been good in their time, but not fit for purpose for the next decade. There is a massive problem in defining what purpose actually is, how we get there from where we are now, how we deal with the difficult issues of those who are comfortable in their use of the current systems. The direction we're headed is unclear - in a fog ahead and with an apparent strategy contradicted by shorter term tactics that speaker after speaker (with the notable exception of the recorded message from the Secretary of State) expressed coded frustration at.
Where am I going? I'm saying that I (and I believe much of the informed passenger community) sympathise with you in the issues you are having to address. We admire and respect your professionalism. We want to continue to work with you and grow the use and usefulness of public transport - in the context of GWR, that's passenger trains and road links for last mile and more remote destinations off the network. On a local (Melksham) level, from which I am writing, we need to have issues on our mutual agenda such as:
* Service Reliability. One of the "stats" sites shows 12% cancellation over the last 4 weeks, and that excludes services cancelled on strike days. We should be aiming at - what - 98% of services run to the published twice-a-year timetable.
* A fare and ticketing system where people can buy online or come to the station confident that they can purchase the ticket they need in a way and environment they feel confident with.
* A feeling of wellbeing and support for everyone at the station and on the trains, be that on normal journeys or on the hopefully-much-reduced occasions when things go wrong.
* Marketing so that we can work with you to promote rail travel to and from our town where appropriate, looking at a target of around 20 journeys per resident per annum 10 years from now. That's about 6 times current journey numbers, and would bring us towards the figures for other Wiltshire Towns which (I would hope) would have moved on up in the meantime.
* Bus services to and from Melksham Station to connect with the trains. I will admit to jealously yesterday in listening to the stories of this being done and working - yet that gives me faith that we are not looking at rocket science here in Melksham, but rather at something which learns from established practise and will be pretty certain to work.
Ten years ago - December 2013 - we moved from a useless train service at Melksham ("2 service a day and they are too early and too late") to a service that ran every 2 hours or so. Passenger numbers up from around 3,000 to around 75,000 journeys a year. And a big success that we have worked on together. However, it remains a poor service, under which passengers need to plan their journey before they plan their day, rather than being able to plan their day and then choose their train. Make that change up to hourly each way, get the other issues resolved, and we have a model for the next 10 years - from unusable in 2013 to poor in 2023 to appropriate in 2033 (or can we do it by 2028, I wonder?)
A time of change - with so many cards thrown up in the air - is also a time of great opportunity - a puff of wind, a little blow to help the cards settle in a new way suitable for the future. Let's work for this
Graham
Published Thursday, 14th September 2023
Lost meeting and Campus Parking
Last night, I and two other Melksham Town Councillors went along to the Town Hall for a meeting of the Economic Development and Planning Committee of which we are members. That committee has seven members, and it requires four of them to be present in the room to hold a meeting; if not attending, members can ask another councillor to stand in for them as a substitute and that's fine provided they let the Town Clerk or her deputy know. Sadly, there were no such appointments though another councillor (a fourth) was present.We are mid-term, and for some, perhaps, council fatigue may have set it. The Area Board of Wiltshire Council had switched their Area Board meeting to a Tuesday (it's always been a Wednesday before) and this resulted in a clash for two committee members who naturally attended the meeting of the wider body that remunerates them rather than our volunteer town council. And all of us - myself included - have the odd occasion where something personal crops up and we have to miss a meeting.
Enough of reasons. Without a chair, a vice chair, a Town Clerk or a deputy Town Clerk, what did we do? The Committee Clerk confirmed (and with the total agreement of the three members present) that we could not go ahead and make decisions or speak for the council. So what was time dependent, and what could we do?
1. The Planning Application for a Care Home off Snowberry Lane was due to be looked at, with the Town Council being a statutory consultee. Our input is due by 29th September, and we are asking the chair of full council (the mayor Simon Crundell) to consider adding it to the agenda for that meeting on 25th.)
2. The deadline for inputs relating to limiting car parking at Melksham Campus is 18th September - next Monday. Car parking and how it works in the Town are a key element to the life of Melksham and whilst this is not our decision, the Town Council has a right to comment and could have made informed inputs from information that has been collected by councillors and staff as they observe and from comments they have heard.
The opportunity to comment as a council on the parking has been lost. In this event, I will be making comment as a councillor. Inputs to me over the next 24 hours are welcome. The car park at The Campus is getting very busy to the extent that users of the facilities are finding it difficult to park. The proposal is that parking should be limited to three hours, with that limit applying all day every day. I understand that the parking is intended for users, but has commonly come to be in use for people working around the campus and town all day. I understand the objectives and my personal recommendation would be to apply a limit but of four hours not three, noting all sorts of things going on (Melksham Without meetings, bowling, cricket, and Assembly Hall evening events too) where three ours is a bit tight, and it would seem sensible to allow parking for these things.
The parking issue once Melksham House opens for SEND may prove interesting, as might the number of vehicles going on and off the campus. Even the suggested parking changes may effect the traffic through the gates, as a vehicle parked all day is just one passage each way, whereas a space used by (say) three different vehicle in the day is six passages.
I would also question the three hour limit on the electric charging points as they are NOT fast chargers and four hours might make more sense there too.
Parking Proposal - Melksham Campus - reference: LJB/TRO/MELKos
Submitted 17th September 2023
Comment from Graham Ellis. I am a Melksham Town Councillor for the South Ward which includes the Campus and reflecting on inputs from local residents. I am also informed by being a member of the SCOB (Shadow Campus Operations Board) during Campus planning and President of the Chamber of Commerce at the time.
It is generally accepted that the car parking has become used for all day visits by people visiting the town as a whole, to the extent that it's getting to be difficult to find a general space during the day. As the primary intent of the car parking is to provide somewhere for people to park while they use the health and leisure services around, I and my correspondents would agree that some sort of action to limit or remove all day parking is appropriate.
Concerns with the three hour proposal:
* Many activities such as cricket, bowling, meetings with follow ons at the offices of Melksham Without and Melksham Town Councils and evening events at the Assembly Hall have a duration that is very close to the three hour limit. (1)
* By limiting parking to three hours, you will be restricting multiple activity visits to Melksham by "timing them out" to the detriment of all the activities people take part in at The Campus as well as in the vicinity. Making Melksham as a whole less attractive.
* My understanding is that electric car chargers at The Campus are currently relatively slow and how much of a charge can visitors to the town get in three hours while being a captive audience to use the facilities? For residents, facilities on Spa Road offer a much faster charge though without the facilities around. As it stands there 3 hours is enough for hybrid vehicles but inadequate for pure electric vehicles on the charge rate available.
There is always going to be something of a compromises but I would suggest:
* 4 hour rather than three hour limit as this will take in the majority of activities but allow your enforcement officers to make two visits within their shifts if you are manually checking registrations
* Limited observation during the consultation period suggests that blue badge spaces (and electric charge spaces) are generously available where regular spaces are nearly full, and I question the need to restrict the use of these spaces on a time limit. We are in a changing world with the electric points and if you were to upgrade them to faster chargers it would then make sense to include them in the same time limit.
* I question the need for the limit to apply all day, every day and wonder if applicable, say, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. would be appropriate.
(1) I understand from other inputs received that in addition to three hour limit you are proposing and consulting on, you may be issuing passes to some campus user groups who’s use exceeds your three hours. As the consultation does not describe or even mention these parts of your scheme, it is difficult to make inputs relating to them. I would appreciate a further opportunity to make informed comment.
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
Published Wednesday, 13th September 2023
ClimateFest - Thank You and where we are
A big "thank you" to the team who helped organise and run Melksham's ClimateFest '23 yesterday (9th September 2023) in the Assembly Hall, and to those members of the public who came along. Quality rather than quantity; we had far more chairs than people, yet the talks were highly thought provoking and the question and answer sessions lively and well informed. Whilst I would have liked to have seen more "bums on seats", that would have reduced the opportunities for everyone to interact - as it was, there were more hands up for the roving mike than could be immediately accommodated.With any issue, campaign or business sector, things start with a disparate array of players and information - the "embryonic" and young phases. And that settles down and clarifies out over time. We are - in my view - at the point where we are tipping or have tipped over from the suggestion that's not commonly accepted that we can't go on as we have been in using resources up to an accepted but far from universal acceptance of the issue. Which, as I accept that we have an issue to look at, is a good thing.
But we are on new territory here due to the magnitude and breadth of the issues we're addressing - not so much the using up of resources, but the effect of the waste from those resources - primarily CO2 - on the whole environment in which we live. There were around two dozen pictures from everyday life around the tables yesterday, and on the back of every one of them were a few words wondering how things, and people, might look into the future. I don't know the answers but I do know the enormity that potentially effects nearly every aspect of life.
With any embryonic campaign, you have the wide range of active players some of whom make uncomfortable stable mates for each other. There were things said yesterday afternoon that I strongly felt were inappropriate, and indeed I was told (to my face) that one of my comments was offended; no offence intended, and I'm sorry if it was caused - and yet if that helped get the passion and importance across so be it, and perhaps it's even for the good as we get to understand as we all work together to learn and act to put that learning into effect.
And events like yesterday's is not in itself going to solve anything but it does inform and move things forward - not only in itself but in pre and post publicity. It was covered in multiple editions of the MIN, at the Food and River Festival, on social media, on banners across the town, and in person by us standing on a soapbox in the Market Place and shouting out, and walking the streets with a placard. And the headline of we need to deal with this has reached a lot of people; it's continued to do so after the event, ironically, with a great deal of social media comment that people didn't know about it - hey - we now HAVE reached people with the headline!
I am conscious I am writing a longer piece here that will have a smaller audience. And that's to be expected. The question yesterday was asked "why aren't Wiltshire Council doing more?" with a suggestion that they are doing very little. And yet when the panel spoke to that question it transpired that they *are* doing things that hadn't made the public knowledge - there is a lot going on / probably not enough in my and many views, but there isn't a complete block. I am resisting the temptation to get specific.
A common theme has been vested interests in the current worldwide systems that are said to be changing our planet, and the question how we in Melksham (but change "Melksham" to any other place) can help tune and adjust those interests to ensure a good future for the world. It lead on to a number of other questions such as:
* Should we as individuals even be bothering as there's little we can do, or indeed because we like this lovely hot weather?
* Should we as a Town Council be working to either inform or better the environment in our town, or should we be leaving it up to others?
* What difference can we make? Does it matter? Is it too late? Would the world be better for - well - not extinction but a significantly reduced load on that world either from us all making better use of what's available, or by having a much reduced population?
As a Town (parish) Council - we have a power of taxation and every parish of the hundreds in Wiltshire makes use of that. But we are mandated only on two things - to provide and manage allotments, and to take care of biodiversity in our area. So, ironically, some of those environmental issues are not just things we choose to do but things we must do.
Footnotes
1. Illustration - Mike, Bean, Shirley, Lisa and Simon on the panel
2. We always were (and it was confirmed!) that lots of people had other commitments on 9th September ... Facebook posts (here) and (here) asking "Out of interest, if you didn’t attend ClimateFest today, what was the reason?" are very useful in informing the team. Whilst very interested in the outcome, not my posts and, please, do not feel in the slightest bit guilty if you had other plans or (ironically) were heated out!
3. We hear a lot about election cycles and how important government and getting re-elected is to give those who stand to lead the power to be more in control and do things. We also hear about the underlying measurement of society success by growth. I'm not personally prioritising the shorter term grab for votes in the next elections (general, county, town, mayoral) over what I consider to be longer term important issues - and that's back onto my hobby horses of openness, evnironment and equality. As I put it yesterday - "I am not in it for the 2025 election popularity stakes to get myself (re) elected". But I do appreciate that if my fellow citizens don't like what I'm saying or doing, I'll then have less position to press those issues. There are some indications that by being consistent and explaining, even thins people don't agree with, that they'll put their vote and trust in you anyway. We may see - this is not "this week" stuff, but it is key into coming decades.
Published Sunday, 10th September 2023
YES, we have Air Conditioning!
Will their be Air Conditioning at ClimateFest at the Assembly Hall tomorrow?Come to the Assembly Hall for 13:00 through to 17:00 on Saturday 9th September for ClimateFest '23. Keynote speakers from 13:15, "Any Questions" from 14:30, personal audits from 15:45. All welcome, free entry.
YES - the hall's AC will be turned on and it will be comfortable not cooking.
9th September is expected to be the hottest day of the year in an already getting-hotter climate, so without AC it would be unbearable. However, AC runs on electricity and much electricity is generated in an none-enviroment friendly way. So our "call" on this has not been easy. At present, the Assembly Hall's electricity is purely mains fed - however, there is a prospect for the future of solar panels potentailly across the Assembly Hall and/or the Blue Pool. I can share the sums tomorrow.
Illustration - a home AC unit that we're using, recycled from our days as a hotel. We have it running in our room at present - drawing electicity from solar panels on our roof, so operationaly "green". I can tell you about it tomorrow. We're reasonably pleased with ourselves about this aspect of what we do - lots of other areas we know we could do better. Again, happy to inform discussions tomorrow.
Published Friday, 8th September 2023
SplashPad - extended September Hours
Melksham Town Council has just announced that the Splashpad in KGV Park will be open every day in September from tomorrow (2nd) and not just at weekends. Opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m.The use of the facility is very weather dependent, and the Town Council is of course aware that schools are back in session - that does mean there's an opportunity for tiny children to have a splash in the middle of the day, and for older ones to come down perhaps for an hour in the late afternoon.
The Town Council has a major investment in the SplashPad and it makes sense to use it for a longer season; whilst there needs to be a member of staff around while it's open, there are gaps between the hourly stats and checks, and that person can be doing other things too. The WiFi in the pavilion is fast, and when I'm on duty (I am trained and will be volunteering on Thursdays) I can be doing other things - though able to drop them if needed for anything at the pad. Others are on a multitude of park duties including those now physically beyond me.
I have learned a great deal this summer, and I know that the team will have a "wash up" when the season finishes. There were significant discussion between councillors early this year, and we were also constrained by staff shortages. There are clearly the metrics of schools times to consider, and we also need to look at the hours of daylight (which we can predict) and the weather (on which the best we can do is an educated guess). These two graphs show daylight and temperature (for Bristol Airport, but near enough) - from (here) - average for recent years, and 2023 so far. I have overlayed a rectangle to show when we have been open, and another rectangle to suggest a tuning of the hours to make best use of hot afternoons and early sunny evenings.
Published Tuesday, 5th September 2023
Thank you - helpers at Food and River Festival
First and foremost, a huge huge "thank you" to Mike and Richard for each doing a very full day with me on the booth at the Melksham Food and River Festival over the weekend, and Sue for doing a substantial shift too. The festival was a wonderful opportunity to reach the general public with the autumn programs for the Melksham Assembly Hall and for trains from Melksham Station. It also allowed us to talk about environmental issues and promote ClimateFest for next weekend.The weekend was a huge success for us - objective of getting information out there on three key topics achieved. We had a really simple stand strategy of reminding people of the environment, Melksham Station and the Assembly Hall and if they were receptive making sure they went home with literature. I have no count of how many people we spoke to, nor how many leaflets we handed out, but we were perpetually refilling the display table from our behind the scenes stocks, and we had only a very few breaks where we were not talking to people. It came, I believe, as something of a surprise to both Richard and Mike as to just how receptive people were; you can see a doubt as you approach people, but for the most part they are really positive once you tell them you're talking either Assembly Hall, or Climate, or Melksham Station.
Big "thank you" too to Adrienne and the team who put the event together and ran the day. Far too many to mention individually, but I really appreciate both the last minute opportunity to take part when the Town Council cancelled their stand midweek and all the on-the-day help. Both the friends of the Assembly Hall and the rail user volunteers were able to pull a stand and literature together at short notice, but, really we should not have "had to". Better co-ordination next time - I only heard of the MTC pull out "via, via" and but for the luck of that there may have been no presence for the Assembly Hall, and I have not got to the bottom of why the MTC stall, or the Quiz last week at the Assembly Hall, were both cancelled at short notice. Certainly not a lack of volunteer help, and indeed the Town Council came back in very, very late in the week and we ended up with some overlap / duplication.
That little "grouch" aside - a really good weekend, telling new people about the great things in Melksham, and meeting up with old friends and contacts. News at the Assembly Hall is ClimateFest, Rich Hall, Abba, Home Alone and much more this autumn. News at the station is that Melksham is now timetabled to have trains all day (and evening), every day, all year. New people have learned that; old friends have been updated to know that too.
Again - thank you everyone!
Published Monday, 4th September 2023
Autumn - Trains and Assembly Hall programs
Yesterday, I manned a booth at Melksham's Food and River Festival (there again today) - main intent to reach the public with information about the autumn program at the Assembly Hall (including next weekend's ClimateFest) and train times for the Autumn. Modern methods let us typeset leaflets in our own home and have them delivered within a few days - is doing so any use, or should we be simply talking to people and telling them to use their app, or should we simply be telling people about these things though social media?It is .. fascinating to talk with Joe Public and see how (s)he reacts to the booth and the information we are providing. On rail
* Lots of people still want printed timetables. A number say "I use an app" or "I look online". And a number say "I don't use trains" in a dismissive way making it clear that they would never consider doing so. But many, many people take the timetables.
* There is - almost - a joy at having a simple line-of-route table; we have taken a management decision in a trifold leaflet to stick to just the Swindon to Westbury line. Questions are raised from time to time about other destinations (Bristol, Oxford, Weymouth, Cheltenham, London) but there was no way they could all have been covered an it would have diluted the readability of the leaflet.
* The "all day, every day" message - including evening trains - is a good one and well received. Concerns expressed are reliability (strikes especially causing concern) and ticket price - in some cases perceived, and in other cases actual. Getting the right ticket is also a concern; at Melksham we don't have station staff nor was there anyone who established themselves as an informed travel help point at the cafe or other local business there. Some people don't know where the station is, whether they can park there, and thinks it's way out of town.
* Leafletting has always been a wasteful process, but I came away with the feeling that a proportion of what we were distributing will be kept, attached with a magnet to the fridge, put in the pocket. Statements of intent, some of which will be carried out, to that effect.
* "Cold Calling" equivalents - walking up to those passing by and offering them leaflets - was very effective. With train timetables and Assembly Hall programs we very much had a positive re-direction of many people onto our agenda, with then carrying on better informed than they were as they walked along between stalls and funfair. I was joined by good friend Mike on the booth - who did a fantastic job; he has previous exhibition booth experience in a more commercial environment and was very much surprised at the positive reactions we were getting once we declared what we were promoting. We very much have the local groundswell o support.
* At the Assembly Hall, indications are that the autumn program is going to see big audiences, with certain tribute bands and comedians generating early excitement. There's a repeated desire to see more comedians - our offering is thin as we (as councillors) declared our senior Assembly Hall manager redundant and created a gap in specialist experience in our team, without any immediate plugging of that gap or plans to do so.
* The cancellation (midweek) of the Town Council stand at the Food and River Festival, at which the Assembly Hall program was to be distributed, gave me the opportunity to co-ordinate rail, ClimateFest and Assembly Hall volunteer interests into a new single stall, and I am delighted as to how well it worked. More notice would have been nice as it would have allowed for a much wider volunteer availability to help - most busy people ere already committed. A big "thank you" to the festival organisers in finding a pitch for the Town Council when they reversed their decision at the end of the week and said they wanted to come along after all.
Internal discussions about the various cancellations by The Council his week by all means - but I am gobsmacked that it got to the stage of pulling out of events and (in one case) rebooking.
In hindsight, my first choice would have been NOT to cancel the quiz night and attendance at the festival. For the Town Council to have asked for help which would have been willingly given.
My second choice - once being relinquished - would have been to let the community take over. For the quiz night, I asked about us re-instating later on the day it was cancelled, but didn't hear back in reply to my email; I suspect the staff were off duty. For the festival, I heard via my wife from the festival organisers who were co-ordinating another booth, and managed to help the organisers fill the gap usefully.
As volunteers, our booth's working well - writing mid-event. In a way we ended up with third choice - I would rather the Town Council, once decision made, had NOT reversed its position, leaned on the organisers to create a pitch, and set up a second Assembly Hall stand. They had individual event flyers, and fortunate for them I have a plentiful supply of autumn programs in the van. For them to turn up without even knowing how their key marketing piece was to reach them has left me appreciating, once again, the enormity of our decision to dispense with the Assembly Hall Manager tasks.
Putting this into context - Town Council presence and events are not my decision. I'm just one of 15 part time volunteer councillors and we employ a professional team to deliver. So where we are this weekend is not my choice, nor should it be. Personally, I would prefer the staff member on the Town Council booth to beputting his trust in volunteers, and his time into getting the Assembly Hall roof fixed. A manager should step in where necessary as is being done this weekend, but that shouldn't in my view have been necessary.
Published Sunday, 3rd September 2023
Come along, listen, ask, learn
ClimateFest in Melksham, 9th September 2023Please come along - from 13:00. Entrance free. Talks from 13:15, "Any Questions" from 14:30 and personal audits from 15:45.
For the first ClimateFest, we (the Environment and Climate Working Group of Melksham Town Council) discussed inviting Extinction Rebellion to speak. A considerable discussion, but we decided against. We also decided we should plan to invite them this year, in 2023, and we have confirmed our decision. We will hear about clean electricity, building materials, electric buses and other transport, heat pumps, our own local audits and the world picture with Extinction Rebellion.
Why XR this year but not last?
Because grass roots movements move on. They start as protest and gain visibility and move on to partnership. It's the way that the Suffragettes brought votes for women, and in a small way it's the way we moved from protest to partnership locally in getting a useable train service back.
I won't add a "spoiler" to tell you what they will be saying - I'll just invite you to come along. Doors open 13:00, Friday 9th September, 2023, Melksham Assembly Hall.
Published Saturday, 2nd September 2023