Last year, an Area Board meeting in Melksham, the Campus project was pushed ahead with the majority of the councillors in support, but a vocal minority, and much of the public, seriously concerned that a campus on the outskirts of Melksham wasn't right for certain of the facilities. It's probably fair to say that the council pressed forward, bloodied but unbowed, and leaving severe local concern.

What a difference a year made!

Thursday evening, the area board met to discuss the Campus project. It's now been resited, popularly, to a site just off the centre of the town; that site's not without its challenges, but last night's meeting, equally large in size, was quite the opposite in attitude - very positive and forward looking, and with all of the councillors now on side. It's a victory of listening to requests, or a victory for common sense if you prefer to see it that way.

The meeting was the first opportunity given to look at early draft design conclusions - where the major blocks would go on the site and what they would be, what would be adjacent to what, what would be new and what would remain. And following on from that, how the various uses (for the work is being done to be used!) will fit into the bricks and mortar on the site, and across the wider community. A look has also been taken - but very much a first look - to consider site access (arrivals and departures); where and how.

There *are* many questions still to be answered. But I was very happy to find that only two questions of all of those raised took me from "left field" and I think in this case other members of the SCOB (Shadow Community Operations Board) on which I sit are probably already in the loop. Notes were taken, all issues / questions (which I'm not going to list here) were truly addressed if not fully answered to conclusion on the night will be considered as we go forward to the more detailed design phase.
(written 2012-10-12, updated 2012-10-13)

 Z405 - Melksham Campus
  [3193] Melksham Campus - what, why, questions, concerns and how you can input - (2011-03-04)
  [3214] Melksham Campus - any last minute inputs from Melksham businesses? - (2011-03-26)
  [3224] Melksham Campus - a win / win opportunity, but a severely lacking decision process - (2011-03-31)
  [3225] Campus - answer to business questions - (2011-04-01)
  [3246] Melksham - the way forward. 26th April, Well House Manor - (2011-04-13)
  [3277] Between a rock and a hard place. - (2011-05-04)
  [3279] Letter to The Editor - (2011-05-06)
  [3325] The Olympic Torch, and Melksham House - (2011-06-14)
  [3481] Some thoughts in answer to some Melksham Campus questions - (2011-10-14)
  [3500] Campus Shadow - a great responsibility - (2011-10-30)
  [3503] Melksham House - a community facility - (2011-10-31)
  [3518] Melksham House / Melksham Campus - Seniors Input Sought - (2011-11-12)
  [3520] Quintessentially English - scenes from our Wiltshire town - (2011-11-14)
  [3735] A walk around Melksham this morning. Can you place all of these? - (2012-05-17)
  [3736] Abstraction - (2012-05-19)
  [3741] Low carbon and other environmental lessons for the Melksham Campus? - (2012-05-23)
  [3748] Not everyone has a computer - 9 more ways to learn about the Melksham Campus - (2012-06-03)
  [3812] The Melksham News - July 2012 - Part 1, Campus and Chamber of Commerce - (2012-07-22)
  [3901] How much parking should there be at Melksham Campus? - (2012-10-21)
  [4048] Art, Catering, Transport - Melksham Campus Elements - reaching local experts - (2013-03-19)
  [4103] Questions from children about Melksham Campus - (2013-05-26)
  [4311] Melksham Campus - how is it going - October 2014 - (2014-10-06)
  [4399] The Campus in Melksham - name, logo, and livery choice - (2015-01-18)
  [4418] Melksham Community Campus - which of these potential signs do you like? - (2015-02-07)
  [4423] Campus - about the logos / way marks you have been choosing from - (2015-02-11)

Back to Inheritance, Composition and Associated objects - when to use which - Python example

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Melksham Chamber of Commerce - whence in 2013 and beyond?

Distributed, Balanced and Clustered Load Sharing - the difference
The components of an Apache httpd / Tomcat / MySQL stack and what each does
Here comes Santa - on the train from Melksham to Swindon on 2nd December 2012
Melksham Chamber of Commerce - whence in 2013 and beyond?
What a difference a year made - Melksham Campus
Inheritance, Composition and Associated objects - when to use which - Python example
Formatting output - why we need to, and first Python example
Default local - a good choice by the author of Python
Pictures - across the park, French Weir and River Tone, Taunton
Apple Pressing Day 2012