Melksham Area Board
MELKSHAM AREA BOARD
The area boards are a way of working to bring local decision making back into the heart of the community. Area Boards are not like old fashioned council meetings and there are lots of opportunities for local people to get involved.
Meetings take place locally once every 8 weeks and between meetings task groups consisting of local people, Wiltshire Council staff and councillors tackle local issues and find solutions to take forward at the next area board.
A key role of the area boards is to provide grants to community groups and youth funding in partnership with the local youth networks. Local Community Engagement Managers (CEM's) facilitate and enable closer working between the council, the community and area boards.
Following the COVID lockdown in March and the cancellation of Wiltshire Council’s area boards as decision-making bodies, it has been confirmed that the boards will resume from September 2020 in an online format. The Melksham Area Board has hosted a series of “community briefings” over recent months to communicate the local COVID response and steps towards recovery. The board will next meet with decision-making powers on 4th November at 7pm via MS Teams. Its Community Area Transport Group and Health and Wellbeing Group will also resume online meetings from September. Community, youth and health & wellbeing grants remain available in 2020/21. Details, criteria and online application process here.
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council-democracy-area-boards
Date of Next Meeting: 4th November 2020
Agenda – this will appear here usually a week before the meeting is due to take place.
NEWS: Following the Electoral Review of Wiltshire Council, Electoral Divisions for the May 2021 elections no longer align to the boundaries for the Council's 18 Area Boards, which are based on the Electoral Divisions. It is therefore necessary for Full Council to agree new Area Board boundaries. A set of proposals has been drafted. For Seend Parish, they are recommending that we are moved into the Devizes Area Board. To see the draft recommendations and to take part in the consultation process, please see the attached briefing note at the bottom of this page.
Community Engagement Manager
Peter Dunford
peter.dunford@wiltshire.gov.uk
01225 713060
MELKSHAM COMMUNITY MATTERS – this newsletter comes out weekly and can be found using the following link