Plans submitted for 55 flats on former library site and car park

By Local Democracy Reporter Peter Davison with additional reporting by Melksham News

A planning application has been submitted to build 55 flats for older people on the site of Melksham’s former library. 

Wiltshire Council wants to build the apartment block on the site, and its consultants have filed a planning application with its own planning department.

The three-storey facility will offer 55 residential one- and two-bed flats, all designated ‘affordable’ with ancillary care facilities at Lowbourne.

The site comprises land associated with a former library, Chinese restaurant and Education Centre, the existing Lowbourne House, and an adjacent public car park.

Lowbourne car park provides 64 pay and display spaces, but the council says these are “little used” since the library facility and health centre ceased operating.

The car park would be lost to the new development, but the smaller adjacent Union Street Car Park would remain operational.

The proposed closure has prompted concern from some nearby residents, who have urged Wiltshire Council to review parking provision in the area. Residents of Union Street and Lowbourne have argued that the loss of the car park could increase pressure on surrounding streets and nearby parking facilities, and have called on the council to consider retaining part of the site for resident parking.

The wider development site was originally associated with a 19th-century manor house, Lowbourne House – although the current house is a 1950s rebuild.

More recently, the application site itself served as the town’s library and a health centre, which later became a Chinese restaurant and adult education centre.

The former library building, adult education centre and Chinese restaurant were disused and permission to demolish them was granted in 2024.

Conservationists describe the current Lowbourne House – which has been owned by Wiltshire Council since 1957 – as “aesthe-
tically unremarkable.”

The new apartment complex would have 30 car parking spaces and mobility scooter parking.

The council’s planning consultants, Evans Jones, say the development, which is close to the town centre and George V recreation ground, is “highly sustainable” and development “will improve town centre vitality.”

It will also meet a “growing need” for additional housing for
older people with “care needs” living in Melksham.

However, the council’s own conservation officer has raised concerns regarding the potential impacts of the change on the Grade II Listed Lowbourne Place, diagonally opposite the site.

“The proposed building would result in some harm to the setting of the listed building,” they said.

But they concluded that the “less than substantial harm” would be “outweighed by the public benefits.”

Melksham Library moved to the Community Campus in 2022.

A decision on the planning application is expected in mid-September.