Council encourage, but will not lead, hydro-energy plans for town weir

PLANS to use the town’s weir to generate hydro-electricity will not be progressed by the town council.

Instead, in a meeting held last month, councillors voted to share a report with Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy and any agent who takes on the Avon / Cooper Tires site when it closes in December.

An idea to use the river’s weir to generate energy was first raised in 2012 and last year, councillors said they were “impressed” with a new proposal by cllr Colin Goodhind on behalf of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust.

Described as a “golden opportunity” for Melksham, as part of the Melksham Link Canal Project, councillors said they were inspired by other towns such as Bradford on Avon, which has used its town weir to generate hydro power for several years.

As a result, they agreed to fund a new report, costing £3,600, into how the project could use the latest technology.

The latest report was discussed at a full town council meeting held last month where councillors acknowledged the benefits the project could have for the town.

Cllr Colin Goodhind explained, ““There was never any intention to get any further involved directly, other than financing the revision [of the report], that was our contribution towards something that could hugely benefit the town.”

Melksham’s mayor, cllr Simon Crundell, proposed referring the project to Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s partner project, Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy, because they have experience with similar energy-based projects. It was also agreed to share the report with the agent that takes over the Avon / Cooper Tires site when it closes in December.

Highlighting the project as ‘interesting’ but warning it may stretch beyond the council’s capabilities, cllr Phil Alford said, “My personal view is I think we are probably, as a town council, better off staying out of this sort of project. By all means share the project and encourage others to get involved, but I think as a town council it would be reasonably fool-hardy to get drawn into such a project.”

He also believed that future changes could affect the project saying, “We are going to find anyway when the Avon gets redeveloped there’s going to be a lot of work on that part of the river that could impact the viability. I think any further work we might choose to do could get superseded by that anyway as the conditions change.”

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is undergoing a project to connect a new canal link to join up the Kennet & Avon Canal with the Thames near Abingdon and the Thames and Severn Canal near Cricklade, with a link through Melksham.

Cllr Jon Hubbard raised the point that the canal trust should be involved with the Melksham hydro-energy project, to avoid any disruption to their plans.

He said, “[I] 100% agree, as long as we do it in line with what the canal trust are trying to do, so we don’t scupper any plans that they’ve got for the works they’re looking at there.

“The potential for the power for that to generate is significant. Absolutely it could go in before the canal is completed but what would be a tragedy to do, is to do those works in such a way that we made it harder for the canal to be done.

“I think we need to do this working with the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust, but any opportunity we have to bring in any form of green energy for our community we should be seizing with open arms and I for one would be 100% behind this project.”