Another overdue report - Wednesday of last week!
Melksham's area board is a group of the six unitary area ("county") councilors who meet every couple of months to listen to and vote on issues relating to six wards that make up Melksham and the "surrounding" countryside. They also have some funding opportunity. Area Board meetings are open to all, but the voting is limited to councilors.
As the Community Area Partnership "mirrors" the Area Board and to some extent provides a feed to it, I have hankered after getting along to an Area Board meeting since they started about a year ago - and managed to do so for the first time last week. And I was agreeably surprised by how well it ran / went (I probably should not have been surprised as there are a lot of very good people involved!)
OK - so it looks a bit odd to have a room with the best part of 200 people in it, with just three of them voting on issues (only 3 of the 6 councilors on the area board made it that evening, due to holidays). But sensible discussions, sane decisions made in the awarding of grants, etc.
I'll confess that I was taken aback when another member of the audience rose, waving a month-old article of this blog, and stated that it contained incorrect facts. "Why wasn't it checked with Atworth Parish Council" he asked. So I found myself saying "excuse me - that looks like a page from my personal blog ... why on earth are you raising it here ... ". See
[here] for the article, and my follow up posts.
As part of the Community Rail Partnership, we *will* be asking the Area Board (and the CAP) for elements of support in the autumn and beyond - especially with research into the travel requirements and desires of the people of the area, and how they might change their travel plans based on what might (or might nt) be available, and at what price. Research / knowledge on this is incredibly sparse ... I'll have more to say in the subject when I catch up on writing up my Thursday meeting ;-)
(written 2010-08-04, updated 2010-08-05)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z301 - Current Affairs [33] 10 Years of experience - (2004-08-30)
[377] A Strengthened City - (2005-07-14)
[614] News in Ireland - (2006-02-20)
[1214] New Serieses for the summer on TV - (2007-06-02)
[1275] Incident in Melksham - (2007-07-24)
[1960] Christmas Survivors - (2008-12-25)
[1987] One Cheer for Local Democracy - Asda in Melksham - (2009-01-11)
[2112] Whatever next ... the joys of being an employer - (2009-04-01)
[2128] Wiltshire - where everybody matters - (2009-04-13)
[2289] pre-Inaugural briefing - Melksham Community Area Partnership - (2009-07-15)
[2508] Community Area Partnership - inaugural AGM - (2009-11-20)
[2514] The road show has been - where now? - (2009-11-27)
[2574] Summary of Wiltshire Core Strategy responses - (2010-01-13)
[2602] East of Melksham - Building Work Starts - (2010-01-28)
[2666] Random thoughts on Melksham Town Planning and development - (2010-03-08)
[2776] Regional Spatial Strategy and the next 20 years - Whence Wiltshire under the new government? - (2010-05-22)
[2852] Atworth Village Fete - on the Melksham Community Area Partnership stand - (2010-07-04)
[2982] Travel, Transport and Tourism - A vision for Melksham, 2026 - (2010-10-03)
[2995] A river in Melksham is not just for boaters. - (2010-10-11)
[3028] VAT rise in January - it is really up 14% not just 2.5% - (2010-11-03)
[3030] Liquorice allsorts and Dolly Mixtures - (2010-11-05)
[3126] Car Parking in Melksham - thoughts on the proposed scheme, and wider thoughts too - (2011-01-09)
[3183] Redevelopment on the banks of the Avon in Melksham - (2011-02-25)
[3228] What can you take on a public footpath? Pram? Wheelbarrow? Dog? Shopping Trolley? Horse? Cycle? - (2011-04-03)
[3231] Footpath, Bridleway, Byway, Road used as Public Path - (2011-04-04)
[3265] Alternative Vote (AV) - cutting the crap - (2011-04-25)
[3282] The future of canal management and charities - Kennet and Avon Canal bias - (2011-05-08)
[3347] The Anthony trial - Orange County, Florida. Thoughts on conclusion - (2011-07-06)
[3357] Business, priorities, and volunteering - (2011-07-14)
[3385] Do university courses teach the right things for life at work later on? - (2011-08-10)
[3467] Charities v Charitable. The cost of collecting your donation. - (2011-10-06)
[3646] Exploring Melksham with a film maker - (2012-03-09)
[3720] Melksham ATC - freedom of the town - (2012-05-05)
[4429] Wind Turbines - beauty or menace? - (2015-02-17)
[4599] Happy Christmas - and a Christmas thought - (2015-12-24)
[4637] People matter - but there is a tradeoff between different people in there - (2016-02-01)
[4691] Real life PHP application using our course training MVC example - (2016-06-05)
Some other Articles
How Green is my train?Dartmouth, Kingswear and TorbaySwitching from Adobe Photoshop to Gimp - testing it on animalsDefining static methods in PythonMelksham Area Board meeting of last weekBath to Devizes bus via Melksham - changing again in SeptemberCommunity consultation - a true open inputAmbassador or Anorak?Redirecting a page - silent, temporary or permanent?Groupsave tickets - 3 or 4 train tickets for the price of 2