Council looks to preserve town’s tyre-making history

MELKSHAM Town Council is to explore ways to ensure historical items related to Melksham’s industrial past, which are currently housed at the Cooper Tires site, remain in the town when the factory closes in December.

In October last year, Cooper Tires announced its intention to close its factory site on Bath Road at the end of this year, making 350 staff members redundant. The closure of the site will end 132 years of rubber production in the town.

Suggesting the formation of a working group at the full town council meeting on Monday 27th February, cllr Tom Price said, “Cooper Tires, which was Avon Tyres before that, has been part of this town for over 100 years and it has an awful lot of history that I feel we should be keeping within this town. They have a memorial, an ancient clocking machine and quite a big archive of historical items which are currently being held somewhere in the Cooper Tires factory.

“What I would like to see, through the council, is a working group who could liaise with the Cooper Tires team and potentially Melksham Historical Society, to keep the historic items within our town.”

Cllr Jon Hubbard suggested looking into whether the town council could put in a funding claim for a town museum as part of site when it is developed. He said “It is a very, very big site and at some point, a developer will be looking at doing quite a lot of work there and in reality, making an awful lot of money with what they are able to do with it. We could put in a strong claim for some of the space that is going to be developed there to be handed over to be used for that purpose [a museum]. There’s a lot of heritage there and there’s a lot of heritage in our town, let’s capture it.”

Supporting the preservation of historical items and urging the council to consider potential costs, cllr Phil Alford said, “I think it’s right to look at some mechanism to archive material. In Bradford-on- Avon, you see bits from the old Avon factory in Bradford-on-Avon. There are a lot of historical items in Bradford-on-Avon in cabinets, that are quite accessible to members of the public. It would be lovely to see something similar.

“With the role of the museum, I think that’s an interesting one, I think it’s something worth exploring. We need to remember the cost of the museum is not the facility as such, it’s the ongoing running of it. We need to explore how we look to fund that ongoing. That’s a detailed conversation for another day. I think from the outset, it’s definitely worth setting up a working group.”

Support for employees

The council will also look to provide additional support to Cooper Tires’ employees facing redundancy.

Cllr Tom Price said,, “Near the end of the year, there could be potentially hundreds of people looking for jobs, we could see if we could help them with job fairs. I think as this is going to have such a big impact in the town, I think it’s important that we create a small working group to help ease the closure.”

Considering how the town council could help those facing redundancy, cllr Jon Hubbard said, “I recollect when the last round of redundancies took place at Cooper Tires, the town council did work with them. If I remember correctly, we did have some job clubs and there were various other things that were done.

“We have got to remember these are our residents. If they don’t live in the town, then they work in the town and they are still our residents and it’s a big impact when so many people lose a job and I can tell you as someone who has gone through redundancy twice in my life, it’s a big impact on an individual when that happens.

“We can also liaise with the economic development [team] at Wiltshire Council as I know a lot of work was done by them last time for people who were losing their positions. The feedback I received on Wiltshire Council was very positive that they had been able to find jobs for people.”

Councillors unanimously voted in favour of creating the working group out of those who volunteered be involved.