MELKSHAM Without Parish Council will be given ownership of the former George Ward School playing fields – but the project to develop the land into a new mini country park will remain a joint project with the town council.
The decision for the parish council to own the land has been made as Persimmon Homes, who currently own the land, will only transfer ownership to one council, not both.
At last week’s full town council meeting, councillors expressed their full support for the decision, explaining that it makes sense from an administrative perspective and should help enable a ‘swift and smooth’ transfer of the land.
However, councillors also stressed that the town council’s interest and involvement in the land should be protected. Deputy mayor, cllr Jon Hubbard, said, “We need to make sure – and I’m fully supportive of ownership sitting with Melksham Without Parish Council – but we need to make sure that when we pass that resolution, resolving that ownership will pass to them, that joint management means that any decisions regarding expenditure on it, has to be approved by both councils, or by the working group made up of both councils.
“What members need to remember is that there is a lot of work taking place to set up a friends group which will go out to seek external funding from elsewhere. The reason for putting it into one council is obvious, but we have got to make sure that we mitigate our risk.”
In agreement, cllr Hayley Spencer-Illman said, “It makes sense on paper to do that, but we just have to make sure that somewhere down the line we can’t lose our decision-making power with Melksham Without – we need to make sure that we always have that input in there.”
Suggesting a solution, locum town clerk Heather Parks said, “What you could do is put a charge – a note on the land registry documents to say that you have an interest and that would be one way of protecting your ownership, but equally I’ve not seen anything yet about a contract between the two councils about management of the land, so maybe you want to investigate that.”
At the meeting the council voted in favour of the parish council taking ownership of the land, subject to a suitable agreement being drawn up to ensure that any financial risk to the town council is mitigated and that the town council adds its interest to the entry in the land registry.
Ownership of the land will be transferred to Melksham Without Parish Council as part of the Section 106 agreement with Persimmon Homes. The transfer also includes a financial contribution of £97,000 towards the future maintenance of the site.
