‘Big and bold’ town celebrations for Queen’s Jubilee?

A COMMUNITY street party in the town centre could become the focal point for Melksham’s celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. 

Melksham Town Council has proposed that the High Street and Market Place be closed to traffic for one day on Saturday 4th June, to allow for local businesses and residents to spill out onto the street, to create a festival atmosphere. 

“It would be wonderful to close the High Street and allow visitors to see the delights of Melksham,” said cllr Simon Crundell, who added that this was an opportunity to ‘bring people together’. 

Other events shortlisted by the council at their community development committee last week, to be considered for its ‘core package’ of celebrations, includes a fayre in the Market Place, a tea and cake afternoon in the Assembly Hall, a Royal photo exhibition, and a family picnic in King George V playing field, with attractions such as a helter skelter slide and a Punch and Judy puppet show. 

The Town Hall is also set to become a focal point for the celebrations, with councillors suggesting that it could be lit up as an “impressive digital beacon” – joining more than 1,500 traditional beacons throughout the UK and Commonwealth, in a beacon lighting ceremony on 2nd June. One idea floated at the meeting last week is to have a ‘shot of light’ beaming up from the Town Hall. 

The council has also suggested hosting a shop window competition for businesses in the town centre, and ‘Melksham Shop Bingo’ – a competition to encourage people to go into shops to collect a stamp/signature and shop local. Councillors said that both ideas would help create new relationships with local businesses and ‘reignite’ existing relationships too. 

In addition to the celebratory events, the council is proposing to decorate the town centre with 2,000 metres of blue, white and red bunting and purchase official commemorative Jubilee ‘column badges’ to decorate lampposts. 

“We need to be big and bold,” said cllr Tom Price about the celebrations, who also suggested that committee members of Party in the Park, which has been cancelled this year, be asked to get involved in the planning of events. 

 The celebration ideas for the four-day bank holiday weekend, from Thursday 2nd June to Sunday 5th June, will be welcomed by residents who previously queried why the town council had made no announcements about how the community will mark the occasion. 

Members of the committee have recommended that unused grant funding for Party in the Park, amounting to £6,000, be ‘appropriated’ for the Jubilee celebrations. 

However, there was some concern raised at the meeting by some councillors about the impact organising the celebrations would have on town council staff capacity. 

“It’s unreasonable to expect them to do more than they physically can,” said cllr Crundell who described staff time as the main ‘limiting factor’ for the celebrations. 

Two other events, a silent disco and a 70s/80s soul and disco night – both proposed by members of the public who would be organising them – will also be considered as part of the celebrations, with the public having the final say on what goes ahead. 

If the events go ahead, the town council will facilitate them as commercial enterprises, which councillors said would free up town council staff time. 

There were some ideas that didn’t make the cut at the meeting. An idea for a classic car rally in the Cooper Tires car park was parked for another time, as the town council did not want to compete with the Jubilee car rally already planned in Shaw. And an idea to host an outdoor cinema in King George V, screening the BBC’s Jubilee coverage, was also rejected. 

“This is an idea for another day,” said cllr Crundell, “if we do it, we should do it well. We should use £1,000 [the estimated cost of an outdoor cinema event] to offer something for younger children.” 

The committee’s Jubilee celebration ideas and its funding will be discussed in further detail at the next full council meeting on Monday 21st March. 

The proposed celebrations will complement the town council’s tree planting plans, which will see a number of trees planted across the town as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy’ – a tree planting scheme in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.