PLANS have been submitted for a new builders’ merchant and an automotive centre on the site of the old Countrywide store at the Farmers Roundabout.

An application for planning permission is expected to be submitted to Wiltshire Council this month, and if successful, the two new businesses could create around 35 full time equivalent (FTE) local jobs.
The plans were presented to Melksham Town Council at a meeting last week, who welcomed the news. Concern, though, was raised by cllr Saffi Rabey about the new automotive centre. She explained that she feels Melksham has a ‘high density’ of automotive centres and that another could saturate the local market.
In response Chris Beaver from PlanningSphere, representing the applicants, L2 Property Ltd, explained that the ‘national company’ had done its market research, but that “it will remain to be seen if there is enough room in the market to accommodate another dealer”.
After the meeting, a spokesperson for L2 Property Ltd, told Melksham News, “L2 Property Ltd have agreed to purchase the former Countrywide site, subject to the grant of planning permission.
“The former Countrywide Store, which took access from the Farmer’s Roundabout in Melksham, was demolished in 2020 after it ceased trading in 2018.
“A planning application will be submitted to Wiltshire Council in December 2021 for the erection of a Builders’ Merchant and Automotive Centre with associated access and landscaping works.
“If planning permission is granted, work will commence later in 2022 with completion anticipated in early 2023. The project has a construction value of approximately £2.5m and will be expected to create approximately 35 FTE new local jobs.
“The completed scheme will provide public realm enhancement in the form of new boundary and landscaping treatment and well-designed modern energy efficient commercial buildings.”
The former Countrywide store site had been earmarked a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. AB Dynamics, an engineering based in Bradford on Avon, announced its plans in 2019. However, following the pandemic, the company decided that the site was ‘surplus to their future requirements’.