MELKSHAM Town Council has outlined the support available to local businesses during the current crisis.
The council’s latest Business News gives details about help from the Government and Wiltshire Council as well as advice from a range of organisations.
Full details can be found below.
Support for businesses
The nature of this COVID-19 outbreak means that advice from Government is reviewed continuously and updated often. Therefore, it is important to gather the information you require for your business from an authoritative source, and keep referring back to that source for the latest updates. In England, we’d recommend https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19
Register for HMRC Webinars
HMRC is running a series of webinars to help employers and their staff during COVID-19. They provide an overview of the support available for businesses and include information on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, refunding eligible Statutory Sick Pay costs, furloughed employees, financial support for businesses and more.
You can watch previously recorded webinars and registers for future ones here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-and-support-if-your-business-is-affected-by-coronavirus-covid-19
Business grants schemes being managed by Wiltshire Council
Wiltshire Council will have written to you if they believe your business is eligible for a grant. You may be eligible if you receive:
- Small Business Rate Relief OR
- Rural Rate Relief OR
- if you are a retail, hospitality or leisure business that would qualify for the Expanded Retail Discount
You must be the registered rate payer as of 11th March 2020 – you need to have a business rates account number to apply for a grant.
You can contact the business rates team at businessrates@wiltshire.gov.uk or 01249 706 290 to clarify the position of your business property.
You can find information about these grants, eligibility and other support packages being offered at www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support
Other Government Support – advice from Swindon & Wiltshire Growth Hub
You could be eligible for other government support that may help your business. Please contact Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub for further advice at hello@SWGrowthHub.co.uk or 01793 698005, and they can take you through the support available.
Also, our local Swindon & Wiltshire Growth Hub is also a good source of information on help available: https://growthhub.swlep.co.uk/topics/coronavirus-covid-19
Be ready to come out of Lockdown stronger than ever before:
- The Google Digital Garage offers a range of free learning content designed to help your business at the Google Digital Garage website. You can learn by selecting individual modules, or dive right in and take an entire course end-to-end. https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/courses
You can also access free live webinar training designed to help you develop new skills. See details of upcoming webinars here. https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/f2f
The editor has also used the Virtual College*, highly successfully, on a number of occasions, for online training. Some courses are City and Guilds accredited; most, but not all, are chargeable, but reasonable in cost. People who register get a regular email offering course discounts and some free offers. This is personal experience, *other online training providers are available, of course. https://www.virtual-college.co.uk
To subscribe for a Melksham Town Council newsletter containing this information, please click HERE
![Melksham Times Past
A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis
The Independent Chapel and Women’s Rights in the 1840s
A document I recently transcribed lists the baptisms performed at the Independent Chapel. This record is especially helpful in that, along with baptisms, a lot of them include birth dates - one of the ways I discover which day someone was born.
The following is taken from a Wiltshire Times article published on 9th November 1878 which reports a speech given during the 100-year services and to celebrate their renovations (what we now know to be the Rachel Fowler Centre).
One speaker, Rev. T. Mann, minister in Trowbridge, talked about the Chapel’s origins when he related how Rev. Honywill came to Melksham and how he’d gone on to remain as the minister for the Independent Chapel for almost 60 years. [Honywill and his family lived on King Street in what we now call “Legion House”.]
Read more on our website, the link is in our bio.](https://scontent-lhr6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.75761-15/505444438_18038424887647822_3264519508333556874_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=gXZQJoHTNiEQ7kNvwHezuPI&_nc_oc=AdlrJvMDapuork_EjycPOcegNeMnCA37GEIudkxkTeCfTgvB5iijE05ojpwlYCd5gN8&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr6-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=QNvAO5SMZpVXmVytNQqVSQ&oh=00_AfPCRkqHgOSMvuudIx2c3c6tPfxG8yxgXENMsL7kQCav3g&oe=685475CA "Melksham Times Past
A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis
The Independent Chapel and Women’s Rights in the 1840s
A document I recently transcribed lists the baptisms performed at the Independent Chapel. This record is especially helpful in that, along with baptisms, a lot of them include birth dates - one of the ways I discover which day someone was born.
The following is taken from a Wiltshire Times article published on 9th November 1878 which reports a speech given during the 100-year services and to celebrate their renovations (what we now know to be the Rachel Fowler Centre).
One speaker, Rev. T. Mann, minister in Trowbridge, talked about the Chapel’s origins when he related how Rev. Honywill came to Melksham and how he’d gone on to remain as the minister for the Independent Chapel for almost 60 years. [Honywill and his family lived on King Street in what we now call “Legion House”.]
Read more on our website, the link is in our bio.")
