THE future of the Melksham Assembly Hall could be decided following a three-month consultation involving the town’s 23,000 inhabitants.
Melksham Town Council last night (Tuesday, August 9) voted to halt plans on its future until councillors have the results of the consultation.
Town clerk Linda Roberts has been tasked with appointing consultants to find out what residents think should happen to the much-loved hall.
Tuesday’s extraordinary full council meeting was held in public, despite the agenda stating that discussion of public assets would be held behind closed doors, excluding the press and public.
Councillor Jon Hubbard, a former mayor of Melksham, said: “Before we find out what the solution is, we need to find out what the problem is.”
The future of the Assembly Hall has been in doubt ever since consultants CaSA Architects said in 2017 that it needs a £2 million refurbishment and redevelopment to upgrade its facilities.
There is no other facility in the town capable of staging the kind of live music and other events that are held at the Assembly Hall.
Cllr Simon Crundell, who chaired the meeting, said he did not expect any quick decisions being made about the three options presented by officers.
“I don’t envisage such a big decision being taken in two, three, five or eight months. This will take a long time to come to fruition and it will necessitate going to public consultation.”
Cllr Phil Alford believes that Melksham has a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to redevelop the Assembly Hall and Blue Pool site.
He said: “What I will not accept is that the Library and the Blue Pool sit there in the middle of town rotting away, boarded up, waiting for someone to make a decision and the rest of us have to live with that.
“They are important, valuable sites. They have a future, not as a old derelict couple of buildings but as part of the fabric of this town.”
Cllr Alford said that Wiltshire Council has an “obligation” to get best values for the sites in Melksham that it owns, it cannot gift them to the town.
The hall’s future is clouded by the possibility that Wiltshire Council may demolish the Blue Pool leisure centre.
That would give the council the opportunity to clear the site for future redevelopment now that its leisure facilities have been relocated to the new £20m Melksham Community Campus.
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