Town Council steps in to light up Melksham East

ADDITIONAL lighting will be installed in some parts of Melksham East Ward following a successful campaign led by town councillor, Louisa Lewis, and Wiltshire Councillor, Mike Sankey, in response to residents’ safety concerns over limited street lighting in the area.

Councillors voted unanimously to approve plans for LED solar lights to be installed as part of a two-phase process, at the full town council meeting, held on Monday 30th January.

The vote followed the results of a public consultation, held last year, which showed that residents in the areas surrounding Forest and Sandridge school wanted more lights installed along the footpaths, to improve safety of the community and children walking to and from the school.

Following the initial consultation, further stakeholders including the landowner, Forest & Sandridge School and the local police also added their support to the project.

In phase one of the project, lights covering the northern part of the estate surrounding Skylark Road will be installed along a busy part of the estate used at all times of the day and by children going to and from Forest and Sandridge school.

In phase two of the project, lights will be installed along the footpath in the playing field, west of Forest and Sandridge school and towards Clackers Brook, which currently does not have any lights and is ‘unusable after 5pm’ during winter, unless residents use a torch.

Melksham’s East Ward housing estates, which were developed in 2009, are run by a management company, Green Square Accord, and not Melksham Town Council.

Councillors previously raised questions about whose responsibility it is to install and maintain lighting for the area as Green Square Accord said they would not fund the project as it hadn’t formed part of the agreement when the estates were built.

In response to these concerns, cllr Louisa Lewis previously called for the town council to take action to install and maintain the lights to protect ‘their residents’ who use the area after dark.

Speaking at the town council meeting, Cllr Gary Cooke called for more scrutiny on lighting options to be applied at the planning stages of new housing developments, he said, “I must commend Louisa and the team on this work. Going forward we must ensure this sort of thing does not get missed off the planning applications. I am a resident of this area and I am happy with this.”

The lights that will be installed are Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR) LED lights that are environmentally friendly and battery-powered, in keeping with the town council’s aims of supporting biodiversity and ecology in the town.

Phase one of the project will go ahead and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust will be consulted about the use of PIR sensor LED lights to ensure wildlife is protected, before lights are installed in phase two of the process.

Cllr Jon Hubbard said, “I am very supportive of this project but my only disappointment is that we have to wait for the phase two route to be done and I am concerned this will get forgotten about. I ask for that route to be done as a matter of urgency.”

Speaking after the meeting, cllr Louisa Lewis said, “I am overjoyed that the town council has agreed to step up to install these lights for the benefit of the residents in Melksham East. I would like to thank cllr Mike Sankey for his hard work on this campaign and everyone who has helped with this issue. I stood to be a councillor to make a difference and it’s outcomes like this one which shows what we can achieve when we work together.”