Council to revisit plan for park six years on

A masterplan for King George V Park will be evaluated with the aim of preparing for the next phase of development.

A plan for the park was designed in 2019 and included space for a sensory garden and a dog park.

At a town council Assets and Facilities meeting on Monday 17th November, councillors heard that plans had reached a ‘stalemate’. The plans will now be revisited at a cost of £3,500, which Melksham Town Council is taking from the play parks budget.

Cllr Adrienne Westbrook said, “There’s a bit of a lack of vision of what we have got left to do, and how we can do it, and how we can move forward.”

Cllr Adrienne Westbrook said she obtained the quote from NVB Architects, who produced the original masterplan, whilst the clerk was on holiday.

Melksham News asked the council why a councillor, rather than an officer, obtained a quote to add to the agenda, which the newspaper understands goes against the council’s legal and procedural rules. The council said this “was done to expedite the process” but confirmed that only the council’s Proper Officer -the Clerk/CEO – has the legal authority to prepare and issue the agenda, and that councillors are not permitted to obtain a quote and insert it directly. The Clerk said she has now written to all councillors to remind them of the correct process required by law.

No concrete timeline was given for when the plans would be completed, but councillors heard that the council were hoping to have it in progress by March.

“I think everybody thinks that the park needs to just get finished and then we can move on,” said Cllr Adrienne Westbrook.

Sensory garden

The plans will also revisit the proposal for the sensory garden, initially announced in 2019 at a cost of £25,000. The space in the park was planned to be filled with scented and colourful plants, an accessible path and the refurbishment of the millennium mosaic.

However, the project has yet to be completed, with residents sharing frustration over the delays. Melksham’s former Carers’ Champion, David Walker, who cared for his wife who had Alzheimer’s disease, said the lack of progress was ‘not just personal’. He said, “I know how important local facilities such as a memory/sensory garden are, especially for carers, regardless of age.”

Six years on, the plans are still in progress, with the town council continuing to question where the garden should be and what the basic plans should look like.

Cllr Adrienne Westbrook said, “Should it be back where it was originally thought that it should be? What do we need to do to unlock the stalemate?”