Melksham Area Board grants support local groups

In last month’s Melksham Area Board meeting, Bowerhill Village Hall Trust and Melksham Music and Drama were awarded grants of £1,000 to put towards building maintenance and the purchase of new microphones.

At the Melksham Area Board Meeting on Wednesday 14th June, Bowerhill Village Hall Trust was given £1,000 towards new flooring, which will cost a total of £11,370.

Melksham Music and Drama was also given £1,000 to put towards the purchase of new radio mics, which will cost a total of £7,198, to use in performances for the town and parish communities.

Chair of the Bowerhill Village Hall Trust, Mark Harris said, “First of all, I would like to place on record, our thanks to the area board and to the parish council for the funding we received last year to replace all our external doors, it’s made a huge difference to the hall and many of our users have commented on how much more comfortable the hall is and we have actually managed to turn our thermostat down two degrees, so it’s saved us some money at the same time.

“We now have a problem with our floor. There is damage to the floor which can’t be repaired, there are areas of the floor that are pealing because it is vinyl laying on top of a concrete floor. We have tried to get it repaired, we had half a dozen people in from specialist companies and they say it can’t be repaired, it can only be replaced. The cost is approximately £11,000. Any additional funding towards that will be most welcome.”

Cllr Phil Alford asked what contingency funds would be in place if the new floor needs repairing.

Mark said, “Hopefully we won’t have to do that for another 18 years, we do have a reserve fund that we are keeping back for the building. There will be other things that need doing. There was a suggestion from somebody at some point about increasing our charges to better fund that sort of work, but we don’t really want to do that because our charges are currently on a par with the other halls in the area and we don’t really want to go out of kilter with them, so it is an ongoing maintenance work to keep the hall in the best condition we can possibly be.”

The funds given to Melksham and Music and Drama will ensure the group can use radio mics adhering to government frequency limits, for performances such as their upcoming show Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

A member of the Melksham Music and Drama group said, “We do a pantomime every year and we are non-profit making. We have always wanted to do a show called Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. We have done many shows in the Assembly Hall and we have used mics and stands and mics hanging from the ceiling, but it works really well with radio mics. We have decided to buy some of our own, which we did a while ago, but unfortunately the government changed the frequencies and now we are stuck with mics that we can’t use because they are illegal. Any help we can get towards that [is great]. Two would do us well and we can always hire the rest.”

Groups can apply for three different types of grants from Melksham Area Board; Community Area Grants; Youth Grants; and Older and Vulnerable People Grants.