THE town council has agreed to review the cemetery provision for the town, as it is estimated that the town’s current cemetery could reach capacity in around three years.
At the full town council meeting on Monday 29th April, councillors voted to create a working group to explore options for the future delivery of cemetery services across the town. Members of Melksham Without Parish Council will also be invited to contribute.
The motion was put forward by Cllr Phil Alford who said it was important for councillors to act now before space runs out at the Melksham town cemetery, which is nearing capacity.
Wiltshire Council currently own and provides services for Melksham Cemetery, which sits on land along the A350. Cllr Alford said Wiltshire Council does not have a cemetery strategy in place and would not be looking at providing further cemetery services.
Councillors discussed an option of purchasing land to create another cemetery. Cllr Alford said, “We would be looking local; we know who a lot of the land owners are as we have been working on the Neighbourhood Plan process. I would have thought, hopefully, that Melksham Without Parish Council would be quite keen.”
Cllr Jon Hubbard commended the motion and said that if the town council does not start looking at the issue now, then it could face a ‘major challenge’ down the line.
“I know that we have Semington on our doorstep, but that’s not the answer to this problem,” he said. “The sooner we get under way on this, the better, so that we have some form of plan. I imagine it will end up costing us in the early years, but we are going to have to do something, so let’s start looking at it and thinking about it. And one of the things we are going to have to start thinking about carefully is locality.”
