One council for Melksham? Working group formed to push idea forward

A WORKING group is being formed to move forward an idea that Melksham’s two councils should be merged to create one unified council.

Behind the idea is local resident and town councillor, Martin Pain, who has described having two councils for Melksham as an ‘unsatisfactory way of running the town’.

He believes that by combining Melksham Town Council with Melksham Without Parish Council, money would be saved, benefiting taxpayers, and with a 28,000 strong population, the town would ‘qualify and obtain greater access to central government and county council funding.’

“The idea came to me some time ago when I was looking at the fact that we have two buildings to maintain, two sets of staff to pay, two sets of equipment to purchase, store and maintain, two different criteria for calculating council tax and two sets of policies,” explained Martin to Melksham News. “I believe that if we have one of everything we would achieve economies of scale. And with a population of 28,000 in a unified district council we would qualify and obtain greater access to central government and county council funding as we would be a bigger town instead of two small districts.

“We would also have lower election costs and we would be in a position to encourage greater participation of the newer population of Melksham in the running of the town as a unified council.

“I have seen the benefits of the two councils working together at Neighbourhood Plan meetings, and they can work successfully on this, why can’t this be done for everything else? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

“Currently Melksham Town taxpayers carry the cost for local amenities like the Assembly Hall that are used by residents in both districts. And if you look at the statistics, which I have, the majority of users of the Assembly Hall are from Melksham Without.

“One council would enable the cost for all local amenities to be spread across the town with everyone paying the same rate of council tax. This would mean a decrease for current town residents and a rise for Melksham Without, but everyone would be paying the same and contributing to the upkeep of amenities that both districts have access to and use.”

Martin originally shared his idea on the Melksham News letters page and has been overwhelmed by the response. “I was surprised to get the support of councillors in both councils,” he said. “Melksham Without on the whole are against the idea. The one councillor who did express publically their support for the idea was pilloried and told that it would not work and had been explored in the past.

“But I was pleasantly surprised by the number of town councillors who thought it was a good idea.  I would say that we have a majority of the town councillors who would like to see a unified council.

“I have even had emails from Wiltshire Council employees showing support for the idea. One has even offered to help, outside of their role for the council. I’m really impressed by the support that the public have for this idea. If you get into a conversation with people about it, they are horrified that we have two councils. Nine people from the community have expressed a strong desire to be part of the initial working group.”

Martin plans to hold the first meeting of the ‘unity working group’ at the end of April. At the meeting, committee members will be chosen to help move the idea forward.

“Everyone is welcome at this meeting, I would like to hear from anyone in the community. I feel so passionate about this that if one council meant me losing my seat on the town council, I would be happy to do so if it meant that we had a unified government for this area.”

To contribute your thoughts on the idea or to put yourself forward for the working group, contact Martin:      martinpainformelksham@gmail.com.

What do you think?

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