MELKSHAM Town Council has been criticised by a parish councillor for its delay to back plans for the future of the Covid-19 volunteer support service.
Melksham Without Parish councillor, Nick Holder, has said that it is “disappointing” and “pretty poor” that the town council has delayed a decision to back plans to hand over the management of the Melksham Community Response scheme to the new community interest company (CIC), Age Friendly Melksham – a move that already has the backing of the parish council and the Melksham Area Board.
However, chair of Age Friendly Melksham, Jon Hubbard, who is also a town councillor, has offered reassurance that the support service – which has supported vulnerable residents throughout the pandemic – will continue, with or without the support of the town council.
Town councillors were presented with the option to back the handover of the service to Age Friendly Melksham at a meeting this month, but instead decided to allow more time for discussion when some town councillors suggested that the scheme should stay in the hands of the town council, who they say is best placed to assure its future.
Speaking last week at a Melksham Without Parish Council meeting, cllr Nick Holder said, “I think it’s really disappointing for the Melksham community that according to the Melksham Independent News – which I appreciate isn’t always a source of veracity and truth – is stating that the town council is ‘still in two minds about the future of the virus support service’.
“I think it’s pretty disingenuous of the town [council] to still be unable to commit as to whether they are able to support what we would all say has been a fantastic community response, that has been the envy of many towns across Wiltshire.”
In response to concerns about the future of the service if the town council were to decide not to back the handover, chair of Age Friendly Melksham, Jon Hubbard, explained that for its “short-term future” the CIC is preparing for a “worst-case scenario” but was “fairly confident” that the volunteer scheme would be able to continue.
“We will continue to provide support for these residents,” said Jon. “It will be harder if we don’t have the town council cooperating. It will be even harder still if the town council decides to try and play their own game.
“But Melksham Community Response is a very established service, we’ve got 659 people on our books that we’ve been helping, and we will continue to help them throughout the pandemic and beyond.”
Jon continued to explain that Melksham Town Council has also yet to make a decision about what financial support they will offer the service, but that he hopes that the town council will contribute to its running costs.
“Long-term, for the project to be successful, I would hope that the town council would put in a contribution towards the cost,” said Jon, “and to be honest with you I couldn’t begin to conceive how they could think it would be more financially viable to deliver something themselves, than to make a contribution towards a charitable body delivering it, as we’ve already demonstrated our ability to bring funding in from outside of the immediate councils.
“I hope common sense comes into play in due course. But we will be able to survive if we had to.”
Also at the meeting, parish councillors agreed that parish council staff will continue its support of the Melksham Community Response service until at least the end of 2020.
