THE chair of new community interest company (CIC), Age Friendly Melksham, has appealed for a truce with local group, Melksham Seniors.
There has been ongoing tension between the two organisations following the creation of the CIC in June, which at the time Melksham Seniors said was set up without any consultation with them or the public.
Similar concerns were raised by a number of town councillors at an extraordinary meeting of the full town council earlier this month, who said that the CIC had “taken over” the age friendly initiative from the seniors group.
In response, cllr Jon Hubbard, who is also chair of Age Friendly Melksham CIC, has proposed that the two groups have a “constructive conversation” about how they can work “side by side”.
“Age Friendly Melksham desperately wants to work side by side with any and all other organisations working with people in the town,” said cllr Hubbard. “We want to work with you, not against you.”
Cllr Terri Welch, who is also on the committee of Melksham Seniors, said “We have to work together, and sort it out.”
Age Friendly Melksham CIC has proposed that they take over the work of the Melksham Community Response scheme, set up during the Covid-19 pandemic, and continue offering support to members of the community experiencing “social isolation’ – a scheme that was already in the pipeline and being discussed by the two organisations last year, prior to the pandemic.
About the meeting between the two organisations in October last year, cllr Hubbard said, “We received very positive feedback (from the Seniors) – and the feedback from the Melksham Seniors committee at that stage was that the committee wanted to spend time putting together activities for people to be able to do,.
“But would appreciate someone else doing some investigative and explorative work into finding people that aren’t currently being catered for and signposting those people to the services that are available.”
