LOCAL councillor, Jon Hubbard, has hit out at Wiltshire Council and the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) again as they continue to leave NHS homes empty at Melksham Hospital, which he says could serve the homeless in the town.
Two NHS lodge homes on Spa Road have been empty for over eight years. Last year, Melksham and Wiltshire councillor Jon Hubbard, called it a ‘disgrace’ that Wiltshire Council and the CCG are choosing to keep the homes empty and in a dilapidated condition.
A year later, the homes remain untouched. Cllr Hubbard says, “We see everyone trying to pass the buck for these empty houses. Claiming that they will cost too much to repair is simply admitting that they have allowed them to degrade in the first place.
“It is disgraceful that we have people living on the streets and crammed into emergency accommodation in our community, and the NHS is funding keeping these houses empty. The NHS is literally paying to keep people homeless.
“I have written to the cabinet member at Wiltshire Council and asked him to use his powers to force the NHS to either get these homes back to a useable standard or force them to sell. It is unacceptable that they are simply left empty in their current condition.”
Cllr Hubbard has also written to Wiltshire councillor, Richard Clewer, who has recently been granted permission to start a housing company within Wiltshire Council to buy homes to transfer them to the affordable market. He has asked Richard Clewer if he will prioritise these two empty homes as part of his scheme.
In response, cllr Richard Clewer said, “The two properties in question are in need of a lot of repair and therefore currently does not fit in with the local housing company that we have newly set up. It is more about buying houses that are already on the market, ready to be let out straight away.
“The two properties are in need of development and we would need to discuss with NHS property services. The whole idea of the new housing company is to be flexible, so we cannot say no to these properties, but I am not in a position to say whether this is possible or not. More information will need to be gathered.”
A spokesperson for NHS Property Services said, “Our priority is the provision of healthcare and our current capital expenditure programme is focused on renovations to the hospital itself.”
Wiltshire CCG said, “We have used the information from last year’s planning exercise to shape the strategic assessment of the current and future requirements for health services across Wiltshire.
“The assessment process is under way and once completed, we will be in a position to make decisions about how best to deliver locally-based health services which will include the use of buildings such as the houses in Melksham.”
