Councillors’ Corner – cllr Mark Harris

Melksham Without Parish Council came to my attention during my involvement with Bowerhill Village Hall and the Bowerhill Residents Action Group (BRAG). During the first Covid lockdown, council meetings were open to the public via Zoom, so I began attending remotely.

At the May 2021 elections there were seven seats in the Bowerhill Ward, so I decided to stand. As there were fewer candidates than seats, I was elected unopposed. Since then, I have been actively involved with various council committees and working groups and am also actively involved with several task groups working on the Melksham Joint Neighbourhood Plan, alongside our colleagues on the town council and various community groups.

Proposed Melksham Bypass

It has long been my belief that Melksham desperately needs a bypass – the problem is the route. You’re never going to please everyone, so it’s a case of minimising the damage as much as possible, which is why a route to the East of Melksham is the only viable option. However, the current ‘emerging’ route, which goes between Bowerhill and the canal, is not, in my opinion, an appropriate route. It needs to go further east and south so that it bypasses Beanacre, Melksham and Bowerhill completely. There has been much talk about the bypass being built solely to facilitate housing development – this is not true. Housing development will come whether the bypass is built or not but, with a ‘made’ Neighbourhood Plan in place, we have some control over what gets built and where. Proposed Melksham Link In my younger days I worked the land adjoining the Wilts and Berks Canal at Pewsham, so this is something I would like to see come to fruition, but not if it means building numerous houses in Berryfield to pay for it. Sadly, the funding from other sources just isn’t there, so it will be a long time before we see any movement on this.

Cllr Mark Harris Bowerhill Ward Melksham Without Parish Council