I WOULD like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas in this most unusual of years.
I hope you will be able to have a joyful celebration and keep all of your friends and relations safe, while looking forward to everything being back to normal next year.
The Melksham area owes a huge debt of gratitude to all those who have helped out with the Melksham Community Response scheme since March. As someone advised to shield, I relied on the community effort to collect my prescriptions early on, and the way in which the team, led by Jon Hubbard, was able to answer every call for help was remarkable. Thanks must go out to all those who stepped up to help out, and to the excellent team, mainly staffed by people from the Melksham Town and Melksham Without councils who answered the phones and coordinated the responders. Once again Melksham has shown what a community minded area we are.
As I write, the good news about the new vaccines has raised hopes that by early in the new year we will begin to get back to the normal life we were enjoying in February. All the local companies impacted by the virus will need our support to help their recovery.
Melksham Without Parish Council has been able to keep going via Zoom and the concerted effort of all our staff. The office team of our clerk Teresa Strange, Lorraine McRandle and Marianne Rossi have kept the wheels turning and Terry Cole and David Cole have looked after our play areas and allotments with their usual care and efficiency.
We have been pleased to obtain planning permission for our new village hall for Berryfield and will be able to swing into action in the new year when the Bellway estate on Semington Road is completed. Next year we will also take over the new play areas on Semington Road and Pathfinder Way.
A sad loss this year was the closure of The Toast Office in Whitley. This local hub is sorely missed, but a new community group has been formed and supported by MWPC to seek a suitable site on which a new shop and local centre could be established. We wish them luck.
The Neighbourhood Plan has finally got to Regulation 16, in which the Wiltshire Council carry out a final consultation before it goes to examination and then, hopefully before the autumn, to referendum. If approved, this will help us assure that all proposed developments are appropriate for Melksham.
Looking to the future, which this year more than most is a good thing to do, I’d like to wish you all a happy and prosperous new year in which we can all return to normality, safely visit our family and friends and get on with our lives.
