Melksham House: Council to fund extra £2.8m to keep campus plans alive

Plans to create a Wiltshire leisure and library 'campus' have moved forward after a council agreed to fund an extra £2.8m of repairs to a listed building.

Wiltshire Council said developing Melksham House was key to its plans for creating Melksham Community Campus.

The vacant building, which the council owns, sits within a larger site earmarked for the leisure complex, library and meeting space.

Councillors approved the latest funding in addition to £2m already allocated.

Without the repairs to the building, the campus cannot open, a meeting of Wiltshire's cabinet members heard.

Cabinet member for strategic assets and asset transfer, councillor Phil Alford, saying the funds would help bring the listed building back into use and make it zero-carbon.

The campus plans also include a flexible co-working space and meeting room, a community hall and activity spaces.

In total, £4.8m of council funds have now been allocated to the refurbishment of the house.

The council had hoped to receive about £5m for the project from the government's levelling-up fund, but was unsuccessful, the meeting heard.

Melksham mayor Jon Hubbard said the original campus designs and £2m budget had included Melksham House, and said the new expense was because the council was a victim of its own actions.

"Elements which weren't originally part of the budget became part of the budget," he said but added the reality was that if Melksham House was not refurbished then the campus could not open.

He said the council would need to look at disposing of most of its other assets in the town because the risk, he said, was the community could believe the council did not have the money to pay for them.

The cabinet has previously said sites such as the existing library and Blue Pool will not be needed once the campus opens its doors, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Council leader Richard Clewer expressed his frustration over the mounting costs and said he wanted to see the refurbishment go ahead but "without becoming any more of a money drain".

He said he would prefer to generate income from other council sites in the town, rather than sell them off.

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