New maintenance depot for King George V Park

A MAINTENANCE building to be built in King George V Park, Melksham, was discussed by town councillors at a meeting last month.

The new building will replace a current disused maintenence shed which has deteriorated. The town council will be taking on some services currently provided by Wiltshire Council and councillors have been told they will need a fit-for-purpose depot to store the necessary plant and equipment.

 At the meeting, cllr Terri Welch asked if solar panels could be included, although this would be raised later in the plans. She also asked why Melksham Town Council was having to pay for the demolition of the curren shed, a Wiltshire Council structure. The clerk, Linda Roberts, said that Wiltshire Council had agreed to pay half the costs.

Councillors had previously discussed using shipping containers instead of a new building, but the mayor, cllr Pat Aves, said the containers would be “ugly” and “would be out of place in our park.”She added that the door was insecure on shipping containers and cllr Jon Hubbard agreed that shipping containers would be “inappropriate.”

The clerk suggested looking at a public works loan rather than using the town council’s reserves of money. Cllr Hubbard said, “There is quite a lot that as a council we want to do. The problem with reserves is that once they are spent, they are spent.” 

Cllr Mike Sankey, who had previously suggested councillors look at using shipping containers, said this would have “only spent £50,000 of rate payers’ money instead of £177,000.” He said that if councillors go ahead with the new build, could they ask that recycled materials are used during its construction, such as recycled hardcore. “We do have an environmental policy as a council,” he said. 

The town council’s clerk was tasked with looking at terms of a public works loan to build the maintenance depot, up to a maximum of £200,000 over 15 years.