TransWilts CRP, CIC and Melksham RUG
Public and sustainable transport in Wiltshire

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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Car Parking in Melksham - thoughts on the proposed scheme, and wider thoughts too

The local newspaper headlines a rise in parking charges in Melksham from April, and my email contains statements of how charge rises in another town in Wiltshire will kill that town centre, and a degree of disquiet from elsewhere too. I've also been out and about in the town - looking and listening.

What are the facts, Melksham specific?

Here are the current, and proposed, charges for Melksham then:

  Short Term car parking
(Central Car Park)
Long Term
(other car parks)
Melksham is in Band 3 - all towns except Salisbury, Chippenham, Trowbridge and smaller places such as Mere.

"All hourly rates will increase (Except in Marlborough and Devizes which are already higher). There is an option for the town councils to purchase car parks/ spaces, although none have done so to date. Where towns currently have free parking, charges will apply under the proposal."
CurrentProposedCurrentProposed
Up to 1 hourFree0.400.400.30
Up to 2 hours1.001.201.001.10
Up to 3 hours1.802.101.802.00
Up to 4 hours1.80n/a1.802.40
Up to 5 hours1.80n/a1.803.20
Up to 8 hoursn/an/a3.805.20
All day n/an/a3.805.60


The long term car parks currently offer a five day ticket at 15.40; the proposals include annual "premium" (central), "non-premium" (edge of town) and monthly "virtual" nominate car park permits. I've not fully got to grips with those yet, but I can understand enough to know that edge-of-town parking for a year will cost £655.20 - that's £2.52 per day for someone who parks all day, 5 days a week. So it looks like something that's helpful for people who work in town, although - being 5 day and annual - it doesn't look like it will help parttimers, seasonal staff, or those who don't have the money to hand if the whole fee has to be paid up front.

The "virtual" permit looks interesting - monthly, register up to 2 cars that can use it, and get the same discount level as "non-premium". So that's a monthly permit that lets either me or my partner park in the town whenever we want, and for as long as we want, for 1.80 per day.

Currently, parking is charged from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday; it's free on Sundays. I think I saw a part of the proposal at one point that Sunday would be charged too - but I can't spot this in the latest batch of information, so I'm unsure as to whether or not it's still part of the proposal.

Also part of the proposal is a system under which you can phone in and extend your parking if you're going to be longer than you expected. The current "RingGo" system has a 20p per transaction charge, and I'm not sure if the phone extension (which will not let you stay beyond the car park's maximum) will have that apply.


And what do we think of this?

So much for the facts ... what views do people have on this? Well - the consultation's been going on for a very long time. The Chamber of Commerce in Melksham has publicized it and asked for inputs (see for example My article of last March), the Town Council has highlighted and discussed it and it's been in the local papers. To some extent, then, publicity and objections at this point are something of a "end game" where the people who don't like the scheme, but have not been able to change it so far, are making one last attempt to do so. People who think that it's sensible, or has sensible and realistic elements, aren't going to be raising their voices - "the silent". Are they the silent minority, or the silent majority? Or is the majority firmly in the "don't care" camp?

The following are personal thoughts, and do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of the Chamber of Commerce.

The big "shout" has been about the loss of free parking. That it will harm town centres if people have to pay to park to go to the shops, when they can park for "free" at out-of-town stores. Well - I have some news. There's no such thing as free parking! When you shop at Tesco in Trowbridge or Bowerhill, at Morrisons in Devizes, at Sainsbury's in Chippenham or Melksham, or at Waitrose, Lidl (pictured) or Aldi, you still pay for parking. But the price you pay's included in the price of your purchases; it's not separated out.

By having parking costs included with your goods, the Asdas and Tescos of this world are collecting your parking fee quietly, in a non-provocative manner, and in a way that's far more efficient that having a separate organization and system for the purpose. We do the same at our hotel - we welcome hotel guests, course delegates, and our visitors with a smile and a cup of coffee - not with a demand for 40p because they have brought a car, but I can assure you that look after our parking area, and we do so from the money paid to us for training courses, or for hotel rooms.

There are schemes around (I know of one in Swindon) where you can get free parking if you've spent a certain amount, and the scheme's far from unique. And there's nothing at all to stop independent car parking operations from running alongside or in competition with the council. There's one in Melksham already at Melksham House.

But ... if parking has to be paid for independently, it's always going to be expensive when compared to even the included cost at an out of town supermarket, just to cover the equipment and admin needed. I was down at Bath Road car park a couple of hours back; 3 spaces which are free for disabled badge holders for up to 3 hours, and just 12 other spaces. If 10 of the 12 are occupied for up to 8 hours in a day, that's the sum of £38.00 raised. Not a huge sum of money, virtually all of which (at present, anyway) would be collected in coins. The car park and machines need to be maintained and serviced. Staff paid to enforce the charges, and so on. Perhaps the reason there is so little independent paid parking in Melksham is that no-one sees it as a good business to get into!

So - in spite of my "Chamber of Commerce" hat, I have the most enormous sympathy with the people who have to square the circle and balance the books for parking - and in such a way that they neither encourage demand to outstrip supply, nor leave themselves with an empty car park which would have a detrimental effect on the town as well as on their parking income.

Actually, there are many of us who think they've got it about right; the current system of free in the centre, pay on the outskirts for one hour appeared from the outset to be calculated to cause traffic jams, with the rapid-turnover spaces up a cul-de-sac with a no right turn into it, meaning that drivers are going up and down the High Street before the park. A change to a pricing where it's 10p less to park in King's Street, Lowbourne or Bath Road than in the centre may well lead to traffic relief overnight, and a further improvement on top of the recent ban on "heavies" from the very centre.

I personally regret that 30p charge, though I support 40p in the centre - and wonder if it's going to cost 30p to collect it anyway. But I was speaking with a long time (driver) resident of Melksham on my walk - someone who knows a thing or three about the town and has done his homework, and he was strongly in support of the new scheme in total - "Best thing they could have done" he says.

And let's look at the wider town centre picture

What is the wider picture though? It's about why people set up and run businesses in the town, whether customers come to those businesses, and if enough profit is made from the expenditure by those customers to sustain the businesses.

Cost such as the ones described earlier (and many others) are a natural part of any business ... and it's up to anyone setting up and running a business to decide whether they want to clump with other businesses so they can service common customers and with common public transport and/or parking, whether they prefer to set up somewhere that's not clumped which is likely to be lower cost but less symbiotic, or whether - these days - they can trade purely internet / mail order only. Having made a decision to clump (and for certain businesses especially the add-on-service / casual purchase ones it's the only sensible decision), it can appear to be rather petty of them to grumble about the costs of the cluster unless something really unfair is done to them. It should also be their concern to join with others in the cluster to ensure their voice is heard in wider representations. It is also in their interests to work closely with other businesses in the cluster to co-ordinate things like the hours in which they are open for business.

It has been - I regret to say - very hard work so 'sell' the idea of co-ordination to Melksham's businesses via the Chamber of Commerce. Of course, if you're selling something (as some of us have been on that front) and you get few takers, then you need to look at the pattern and say "do we have the wrong product". Perhaps we do, but I get intensely frustrated to hear moans about new stores competing when the moaners haven't got involved earlier on, or moaning about extra parking costs for the first time shortly before something that's been under discussion for nearly a year actually comes in.

3rd January was a public holiday. It was the last day before VAT rose from 17.5% to 20%, the TV had been full of "beat the VAT rise" adverts, and shopping areas from Cribb's Causeway to the Outlet Centre in Swindon were, by all reports, trading briskly with last minute bargain hunters. I walked through Melksham that day; the pavements weren't quiet, as people walked up and down and window shopped and it was bright and sunny. Our chain stores were open, but almost without exception our local Melksham shops were firmly shut. What an example of a golden opportunity lost.




11.1.11 ... My mailbox contains statements of fury as to the rises from other towns - saying how the council's killing their town centres and quoting (so far as I can make out) the biggest local rises to presumably make the most marketable case that hardship will be causes. Yet on the Melksham front, the feedback I have is as follows:

"Ref yr piece on parking in Melksham. Hope council will start charging up by Kings Park school as there's never space there nowadays""

"Here's another aspect on the notion of "free" parking (via @kim_harding on Twitter [article]."

That latter ... a link to a very through provoking article (admitedly not UK) which talks about the number of parking spaces that there are per car, and the impact on the environment of having them all. It also points out that the typical car is parked 95% of the time.
(written 2011-01-09, updated 2011-01-13)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z511 - Public Transport - Road
  [119] PHP course. Come by train. - (2004-11-15)
  [187] a popular bus number - (2005-01-23)
  [459] Kiss and Ride - (2005-10-09)
  [474] Vintage Bus Day - (2005-10-23)
  [764] Journey planning - Xephos v Transport Direct - (2006-06-16)
  [818] Heard, yes. Considered, no. The case for the train. - (2006-07-30)
  [1085] Lawrence Webb's Melksham Taxi service - (2007-02-18)
  [1125] Train service - petititon reply - (2007-03-31)
  [1254] Comparing bus stops - (2007-07-01)
  [1315] Two years of campaigning for a train service - (2007-08-22)
  [1428] Travel Across Wiltshire - the game - (2007-11-11)
  [1511] Buses from Well House Manor, Melksham, to Bath - (2008-01-18)
  [1560] HST Power Car TravelWatch SouthWest - (2008-03-01)
  [1567] Melksham - Swindon. Train v Bus v Car - (2008-03-07)
  [1668] Talk on TransWilts train service to Green Party - (2008-06-07)
  [1723] Bath - Melksham - Devizes. Bus route changes, new timetable - (2008-07-26)
  [1777] The Rise and Rise of First Bus Fares - (2008-08-29)
  [2075] Supporting Parkinsons and Trains - (2009-03-11)
  [2083] Do you support a decent train service? Please sign up! - (2009-03-15)
  [2268] Westbury Bypass Refused - looking forward - (2009-07-04)
  [2328] Melksham - no trains, no southbound buses through the town - (2009-08-08)
  [2372] Public Transport from (and to) Melksham on Sundays - (2009-08-23)
  [2431] Moving busstop! - (2009-09-30)
  [2515] Why we have two buses an hour - but not a half hourly service - (2009-11-28)
  [2522] Integrated public Transport - what could be done for Melksham - (2009-12-01)
  [2533] Five guests, three groups, one car - (2009-12-11)
  [2662] Is Melksham public transport actually used? - (2010-03-05)
  [2672] Dear Planners, please provide viable alternatives - (2010-03-11)
  [2771] Melksham to Calne by public transport - (2010-05-20)
  [2789] Melksham to London (Heathrow, and Central London) - (2010-06-02)
  [2791] Bath to Melksham buses - times - (2010-06-03)
  [2857] Park and Ride at Batheaston - will it solve Wiltshires Ills? - (2010-07-06)
  [2903] Bath to Devizes bus via Melksham - changing again in September - (2010-08-04)
  [2919] London to Calne, Corsham, Melksham, Bradford-on-Avon, Chippenham by public Transport - (2010-08-13)
  [2933] Bath - Melksham - Devizes buses from September - (2010-08-23)
  [2958] What do these road markings mean? Could Confusion Kill? - (2010-09-17)
  [2982] Travel, Transport and Tourism - A vision for Melksham, 2026 - (2010-10-03)
  [2983] Strong arm tactics in the bus industry? Poor result for the customer! - (2010-10-03)
  [3194] Buses - what they cost and their future direction in the SW and in Wiltshire - (2011-03-06)
  [3290] Changes (and no changes) at Melksham bus stops - (2011-05-15)
  [3301] Using public transport - USA style - (2011-05-25)
  [3404] Buses on the Cambridge Guided Busway - (2011-08-24)
  [3471] Vintage Bus Running Day in Warminster. An example of good bus practise. - (2011-10-09)
  [3486] How important is public transport to people in the Melksham area? - (2011-10-19)
  [3487] Public transport - road and rail - (2011-10-19)
  [3504] Coaches from Trowbridge and Melksham to London - (2011-11-01)
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  [3580] Melksham Area - buses, trains, cycles, and roads. Meeting, 17.1.2012 - (2012-01-15)
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  [3699] Bristol 50? Bristol 25? - (2012-04-17)
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  [3850] Bus times - Chippenham Station to Melksham, with London connections - (2012-08-25)
  [3866] Celebrate! Buses from Meksham to Bath - (2012-09-18)
  [3877] Public Transport Services - from and to Melksham - (2012-10-01)
  [3879] Mixed mode travel - Information systems - (2012-10-03)
  [3893] Public Transport across Wiltshire - a new map - (2012-10-13)
  [3904] Want to help us improve transport in Wiltshire? Here is how! - (2012-10-26)
  [3929] Melksham Bus Issues - to be raised at First Bus Customer Panel - (2012-11-21)
  [3937] Agenda for Wiltshire Link Travel groups meeting, Saturday 1st December 2012 - (2012-11-27)
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  [3951] Christmas Bus Schedule for Melksham - First Bus - (2012-12-14)
  [4022] A request for all of Melksham transport groups to work integrated - (2013-03-01)
  [4023] Melksham to Chippenham (Station) bus services - times and routes - (2013-03-01)
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  [4108] The painful cost of local travel to Melksham - (2013-06-01)
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  [4113] Wiltshire and Melksham Transport - what is going on? - (2013-06-09)
  [4123] New timetables from 28th July - bus routes 271 and 272 - (2013-06-24)
  [4124] Chippenham - Melksham - Trowbridge bus changes next month - (2013-06-26)
  [4143] Bus times - Melksham to Bath from 28th July 2013 - (2013-07-25)
  [4149] Bus changes to Bath - good idea, but I despair at information available - (2013-08-08)
  [4150] Melksham Regular Public Transport Map - as at August 2013 - (2013-08-09)
  [4152] Why are bus fares so high? - (2013-08-18)
  [4171] Mapping road accidents in Melksham and elsewhere too - (2013-09-12)
  [4179] Changing transport and destinations - looking forward to a good future - (2013-09-19)
  [4181] Grumbling about trains? Buses can be far worse! - (2013-09-29)
  [4186] Melksham to Bath and Zigzag buses - at a turning point? - (2013-10-06)
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  [4194] TransWilts Link - meeting notes from 19th October - (2013-10-20)
  [4228] Mallory Place, The Spa, Wellington Drive, Melksham - a Christmas present for you - (2013-12-26)
  [4240] Melksham Rail Link - (2014-01-27)
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  [4425] A Welsh valley - what the transport looks like in 2015 - (2015-02-14)
  [4500] The TransWilts Community Intergrated Transport Corridor - (2015-05-29)
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  [4615] Questions for First (West of England) - (2016-01-05)
  [4619] Buses - not about the buses, but about the people who use the buses - (2016-01-10)
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  [4629] Making travel time useful time on public transport - (2016-01-22)
  [4631] What would the Wiltshire Council bus cuts mean for Melksham? - (2016-01-25)
  [4636] Rail user groups worried about what is happening on the buses - (2016-01-31)
  [4639] Working out the costs of running a bus service through the day - (2016-02-06)
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  [4654] Getting to the Royal United Hospital - the Hopper and the alternatives - (2016-02-24)
  [4660] What is happening on the 231 bus? What are you going to do about it? - (2016-03-04)
  [4664] Mallory Place bus stop - services to Bath - (2016-03-25)
  [4667] Wiltshire Supported Bus consultation - final few days - (2016-03-30)
  [4670] The end, or the start? - (2016-04-05)
  [4683] Saudi Arabia or Weymouth? - (2016-05-22)
  [4690] Buses in Wiltshire - potential changes and where we stand at the moment - (2016-05-30)
  [4692] How are bus support payments currently calculated? - (2016-06-07)
  [4703] What do people use the bus for in Wiltshire - survey interim results. - (2016-07-11)

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)
  [2904] Melksham Area Board meeting of last week - (2010-08-04)
  [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)
  [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)


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