THE Melksham Area Board continues to meet through regular virtual meetings to support the community area response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
At its weekly meeting on 3 April the board confirmed a pledge of £ 1,490 from its health and wellbeing budget towards the costs of the community responses across the Melksham community area.
The community has come together in a remarkable way in a very short space of time to form volunteer groups to help those most vulnerable in our community – the old, isolated and sick – all of whom are obeying Government orders to stay indoors.
The Melksham Community Response Hub has set up a website, an email address, a phone hotline and has printed and circulated 20,000 leaflets to all households in the Melksham area detailing its services. It has assembled a team of over 300 volunteers who deliver emergency support, food parcels and prescriptions locally.
Some parishes such as Keevil, Semington and Steeple Ashton also have local support groups in their villages. Seend residents have their prescriptions collected from Melksham on a daily basis by the support hub volunteers. Referrals are made by the hub to local parish support groups where this is most appropriate.
Mayor, Cllr Jon Hubbard, who has been a leading light in the formation of the Melksham hub, commented: “I am so proud of our teams at Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council who have gone above and beyond. It’s great to be one small part of such a wonderful project.”
Cllr Jonathon Seed, Chairman of the Area Board, added: “I am pleased to see Melksham leading the way in the response to COVID-19. All local Wiltshire Councillors are deeply involved in helping their communities by working together, swapping ideas and sharing useful information coming from County Hall via our Community Engagement Manager. To my knowledge, we are one of the few Area Boards meeting regularly through tele-conferencing and the first in Wiltshire to pledge financial help to our community groups in this way.”
The Melksham Community Response Hub is a joint initiative of Melksham Town Council, Melksham Without Parish Council, Melksham Area Board and Age Friendly Melksham.
For more details, visit www.melkshamcommunity.co.uk; email support@melkshamcommunity.co.uk or call 01225 809265.
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