A MELKSHAM town councillor is ‘urgently’ asking for the Breastfeeding Welcome scheme to start, following his proposal, nine-months ago, to create safe spaces for breastfeeding in the town.
Deputy mayor cllr Tom Price put forward the motion to join the national scheme at the community development committee meeting on Monday 23rd January.
Councillors voted in favour of joining the scheme that would see all council facilities and parks in Melksham listed as safe spaces for breastfeeding, to promote a more accepting attitude to breastfeeding in public.
However, since councillors voted on joining the scheme, the town council is yet to install the signs in its facilities and parks but say work is in progress with the design of the signs finalised but not yet approved.
Cllr Tom Price said, “It’s vital that we break the stigma on breastfeeding that you can still see in this day and age. It’s really disappointing to see this still being worked on, we should at the minimum be able to get the signage in town council buildings within nine months, I will be chasing to have this done urgently.”
The scheme involves Melksham Town Council installing the Breastfeeding Welcome signage and logo and adopting the scheme’s policy that includes adapting the chosen spaces; creating a written policy for staff to ensure they know what is happening and where to direct complaints to; and ensure staff create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for the people breastfeeding.
As part of the project, the council was also due to contact businesses in the town, to encourage them to sign up to the scheme and become breastfeeding welcome spaces.
Melksham News asked Melksham Town Council for a comment about which businesses in the town had been contacted but they are yet to respond.
