Love Melksham Column: A resident’s love letters to her town

People’s Emergency Briefing

My love for Melksham this week is for the dedication and drive of the Melksham Environment Group.

Most of the good things in Melksham are kept together by a small handful of people who make things happen and this little group of eco-enthusiasts are no exception.

One impactful project of MEG this week was the screening in Melksham Assembly Hall of the ‘People’s Emergency Briefing’ film led by Chris Packham.

After watching the punchy, powerful summary of the climate concerns facing our country and feeling a little overwhelmed with the scale of it all – I was surprisingly encouraged by the positive optimism of the discussions afterwards. The round tables around the hall came alive with ideas and inspiration and you could feel the energy and possibility that can make things happen with the combined experience, skills and connections of passionate people in Melksham.

Our table focused on the small personal things we can each do – like conserving water, shopping local, signing petitions and reducing food waste and it became clear just how much is already happening and how simple it would be to collaborate and connect to make everyone’s efforts even easier.

There are plenty of Melksham groups, projects and people who are already working to protect our environment who we can work with. For example, Melksham Green Spaces Group is planting thousands of trees; Melksham Community Larder redistributes surplus food and second-hand clothes through their biannual Swish events; both Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council manage hundreds of allotments so people can grow their own food; Melksham Transport Users Group promotes and protects our public transport and Meadowbrook provides space for growing and connecting to nature.

So, although Melk-sham Environment Group is only small, the reach of the collaborative network can have an incredible impact because of the extent of existing enthusiasm and dedication to the environment in Melksham.

As well as the film about the climate on Wednesday, the weather joined in the conversation when, in a week of record-breaking heat, just a few hours after the film was shown, everyone in Melksham was united by a battering of bizarre golf-ball-sized hailstones in the middle of the night.

As the lumps of ice clattered around me under flashes of freaky blue lightning, it felt like a direct illustration of Chris Packham’s warnings about the increasingly extreme weather we had heard just hours earlier. The film was only seen by a hall full of Melksham people but the hail was seen by all of us.

With a town full of encouraging ideas of how we can make a difference locally, anyone is welcome to join Melksham Environment Group to help make more happen.

The group meets monthly at the library and you can find out more  at www.mkmeg.org.uk and join in with another reason to Love Melksham.

Miriam Zaccarelli