THE new revised plans for the Melksham Community Campus has received no objections from the town council.
Discussing the revised plans at the town council’s economic development and planning meeting this week, mayor cllr Jon Hubbard urged councillors to back the plans, telling them, “It ain’t perfect, but we won’t get it (the campus) if we don’t get on with it.”
Changes to the designs submitted in March were made by Wiltshire Council following feedback from the community and the town council, who supported concerns raised by Cedar Close residents who will back onto the campus development.
“I think Wiltshire Council has gone to great lengths with this revised set of plans to address the concerns that were raised previously,” said cllr Hubbard, “both from this council and residents in the parish.
“I personally think that we should now accept that they have made those changes that we asked for. It’s not absolutely perfect, but I am greatly concerned that if we keep sending this back we will never get this campus.”
The revised plans are open for public consultation until Friday 27th September. At Melksham’s area board last week, Allison Bucknell, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for communities and leisure, said that a planning decision is now expected by the end of November, with construction still expected to begin in early 2020.
At the meeting, cllr Bucknell also fielded questions about the future use of Melksham House, which has yet to be decided. The future of the historic town landmark has caused delays to the campus project with concerns raised by Historic England and the Wiltshire Council planning department about it not being included in the campus planning application.
At the area board meeting, cllr Bucknell explained that discussions are still ongoing and described the campus project as being ‘dependant’ on the future use of Melksham House being decided.
Asked for further clarification about the delay in deciding the future use of Melksham House and its impact on the progress of the campus, cllr Bucknell told Melksham News, “Plans for the community campus continue to progress well and we recently submitted an updated planning application taking into account recent feedback. It is our intention to be on site early next year and we remain very confident the campus will be open during 2021.
“We are still discussing the future of Melksham House and as soon as we are in a position to confirm any plans, we will update the community and stakeholders.”
To view the revised planning application, visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-new and search with the reference number: 19/03329/DP3.