MELKSHAM Town Council is to discuss the future of the Melksham Community Response scheme and who should manage it.
Councillors have been presented with the option to support the handover of the scheme – which was set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic – to the new community interest company (CIC), Age Friendly Melksham, which was set up in June.
However, some councillors believe that the scheme should stay in the hands of the town council, who they say is best placed to assure its future.
The CIC, which already has the backing of Melksham Without Parish Council and the Melksham Area Board, has plans to continue the work of the Melksham Community Response scheme by offering ongoing support to residents in the community experiencing social isolation.
“I still believe that the town council is the correct vehicle for this initiative to be taken forward,” said cllr Adrienne Westbrook at an extraordinary meeting of the full town council earlier this month. “I am quite unhappy about it going to a private company – a CIC.”
But cllr Jon Hubbard, who is also the chair of Age Friendly Melksham CIC, offered reassurance that the scheme would have a promising future under the management of the CIC, which has recently made an application to the Charity Commission to become a charity.
Leader of Melksham Town Council, cllr Vanessa Fiorelli added, “The town council is the right body to continue the work, and to ensure that it can continue. I understand that you (Age Friendly Melksham CIC) have funding now, but this is not guaranteed for the future. And what happens if you don’t have the funding to continue and everything falls apart?
“Whereas the council can offer a guarantee that it can and will continue, and that they can work with other groups and bodies within and around the town – not just now and for coronavrius, but for well into the future too.”
Concern was also raised about the transfer of data captured by the Melksham Community Response scheme to Age Friendly Melksham CIC.
“I’m not happy to hand over data for the sole use of a private company that the town council is partly funding,” said cllr Westbrook referring to a grant of £2,292 that the town council agreed to give in November last year to what was then the ‘Melksham Age Friendly Steering Group’.
Cllr Hubbard replied, “In terms of whether it should be a town council led initiative or something that the charity runs – the only thing I would say is, the charity has a coordinator in place who is setting up this scheme, who is working with parish council that have already voted to support it, is working with the area board – who have agreed in principal they will be supporting it – and has an exciting plan for recruiting a volunteer team to continue delivering this work, and there’s a plan to bring the system back up to the level that it was before, in the event of, God forbid, a second wave, or some other form of disaster that requires the community to step in a similar fashion.
“So if it ain’t broke why fix it, and why burden the tax payers with the cost of the town council delivering the project when there’s a charitable group that can do it for less money and can attract funding from elsewhere to continue the work – so it will be a minimal cost to the council.”
At the meeting it was agreed that councillors Aves, Hubbard, Westbrook, and Welch should meet with the support of locum clerk Steve Milton, to discuss a way forward – recommendations from the meeting will be brought to the next full town council meeting.
It was also agreed that the council should discuss the town council’s grant of £2,292, which was originally intended to be used by the ‘Melksham Age Friendly Steering Group’ to support the production of a three year action plan.
Instead, it has been proposed that the grant be used to fund the Age Friendly Melksham CIC’s newly-appointed Age Friendly coordinator.
“I do agree that circumstances have changed,” said cllr Hubbard, “and I think that the council needs to have the opportunity to check that it’s still what it sees as the right way forward.”