Graham Ellis - my blog
An update on the rail passenger forum I set up nearly 20 years ago
I never expected as a co-founder and technical lead of the "First Great Western Coffee Shop" forum in January 2007 - "by passengers - for passengers of First Great Western" that we would still be running in 2026 and looking forward to our 20th Birthday. But here we are, May 2026, still running. 150 active members have been logged in this year - half of them in the last 24 hours. Around 4,300 messages posted so far this year out of an absurdly high total of 371,604 as I write!If you asked me when I set the forum up if it would still be around 20 months later, I would have given it a slim chance - but here we are now in our 20th year. The Coffee Shop HAS changed.
* We started off as something of a protest group; my local station had just been reduced to two trains each way per day "too early and too late" was the sick joke. In subsequent years, we moved very much to partnering rather than protesting, though always retaining our independence and being critical friends. Sadly, I'm finding the pendulum has swung back a little in the last couple of years; long term colleagues and friends have retired, with a team of professional PR▸ staff masking the newer industry experts on board who aren't always fully aware of the needs and desires of the communities they serve. Talking about an individual station last month (not Melksham) I was disappointed to learn that the professional expert making significant service decisions has never actually visited the station to see for herself. We have a fine line to balance here, especially as the First Group's tenure of the service operation will be outlasted by the Coffee Shop, and positions and careers in a "re-integrated" railway must be of personal concern to those in roles that have the potential of being duplicated.
* We started off in the days of hideous unreliability and protest groups like "more train less strain" and blogs like "Worst Great Western" and "First Late Western". Most of them are no more with us as we have seen so many improvements over the years - though there is so much more that could be done and we have seen steps backwards as well as forward. Our county town of Trowbridge no longer has a through train from London, for example, though it does now have up to 3 trains per hour to Bristol and they are popular. Online information and ticket booking is so much better, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter/X provide a further enquiry window into the train operators, which very much replaces and so it should - our own question enquiry functions. JourneyCheck and a multitude of other web sources eliminate the need on many occasions for knowledgeable passengers to have to even enquire of a human, and the majority of ticket booking is now done without human interaction.
* Internet and personal information security has hugely changed. The Coffee Shop has never collected personal information nor taken payments, nor have we ever carried material which is knowingly illegal in any way - abusive, against copyright, etc. We have always had a strong team of moderators who pick up the rare issues we have very fast indeed, and that team has developed as things like GDBR, Online Safety and cookie laws have changes - in most cases only reflecting what in any case has been our good practise; we have adjusted how we monitor / log our watching over such things, so that we can provide proof if ever asked for it.
* Part of the changes in the "security" field has been the move from the http to the https protocol - Hypertext Transfer Protocol and the "S" means secure. As we only really carry public board traffic, the need for "S" was more to re-assure people (sure, personal messages could have been intercepted if anyone was interested at our WSP!). Technical issues on the move were significant, with our original software being so out of date that it won't upgrade easily - a problem shared with other forums, we note. They have gone so far as to restart with fresh databases and a clear history; we have wrapped our "worker" server in a "receptionist shell which handles the secure layer, provides a lot of cached responses, and filters out the vast noise of unwelcome automata that crawl sites while letting through the welcome ones. Our "Receptionist / worker" model is working well - looking at yesterday, our receptionist got 440,000 requests of which 217,000 were passed on to our worker system.
* We have moved from minicomputers to tablets and phones, and from browsers that display data to much more intelligent apps, but on much smaller screens. A problem for our old worker software, but we have added a reader's layer on the receptionist; far from ideal at present but something that could be developed into the future.
* These days, we have a long-established regular membership and we're much more a club of people we know well, meet online and share interests. We digress into wider areas - travel and transport outside the (F)GW(R) area, and away from trains into buses, cycling and ferries and we have a "heritage" interest too. In very early days, we had an exuberant membership of younger railway enthusiasts who, however, moved on to other more specialist fora which had their train enthusiasm, rather than the general traveller's interests, in their hearts. Some of them found our level of questions and knowledge frustrating low, and at times that level, and our team's insistence that discussions and members at any level were welcome, and they moved on - in a couple of cases being obliged to do so when they let their frustration get the better of them. Also looking back 20 years, all of the members who joined in the first years are now nearly 20 years older. Life changes, and many of them are no longer regular train users. Sadly, some have passed away and it's the nature of a forum such as this that we tend not to hear when a member is no longer around. On the other hand, no fewer than 58 members who joined us over 15 years ago are among the 150 who have been logged in this year.
* As well as members, guests visit us and are welcome. I estimate that over 90% of our posts are public. Whilst it's difficult to separate out the human guest browsers from the automata traffic at times, our Google Analytics suggests around 600 visits in the last week from different real guests in the UK. That number makes sense - we have such a database of information these days that when I search the world wide web for a "rail in the south west" type topic, I often find myself recommenced to (or quoted from) an old Coffee Shop thread.
* As I write, our servers are running sweetly (famous last words!), with the worker running 40 days without a pause, and the receptionist for 161 days. I do keep an eye on disc storage and take frequent backups local to the servers, and download copies from time to time. That's not a 100% guarantee against failures; a configuration change at our WSP put us offline for 4 hours in March, and looking back to March last year a server crashed (a power failure at our WSP while I was away) enforced a rebuild that took 36 hours to fully restore. By nature, things like this, more clever denial of service attacks, and other things changes to data feeds that we use to provide dynamic reports will come out of the blue, and by Murphy's law at the worst possible time too. We also had one of our WSPs sell off their hosting business and while we were able to transfer, I'm nervous at some elements of the technical support that the new team provides.
* The Coffee Shop is a members forum. It's here for the members and guests and would not be here without you. All members are friends too - and amongst those friends are the moderator and admins team A big ongoing "thank you" to all. Without you, the Coffee shop would indeed have been that 20 week project in 2007.
And so - what for coming years? Well - I look forward to the next decade here. By the end of that time, I'll be in my 80s, with a project that I started at age 52 - and the rest of the team has similarly matured too. We do have some newer members and moderators but the software is way up the garden path (it was never intended to last this long!) and would be difficult for others to pick up. I have lived with it (and similar software) for so long that my years of intimate knowledge means I can nip an issue in 5 minutes that other would need a length study into - and we do not have a funded / paid admin team who can be re-reimbursed to study and retain the knowledge ahead of time. Mentally, I remain AOK; medically some issues have surfaced over the last five weeks, but nothing that's, as yet, a terminal diagnosis and I DO look forward to all those years ahead. Much else has been given up as I wind down but the Coffee Shop remains - well - I am reminded of the words or W H Auden - "... my North, my South, my East and West, my working week and my Sunday rest, my noon, my midnight, my talk, my song".
This time next week, I will be in Belgium. In two weeks, I will be in Denmark. I will have my new "baby" Duckworth with me - minimalist Mac Neo that'll help ensure that I'm online anywhere from Aalborg to Zwolle and places between as usual. "Steady as she goes" with the Coffee Shop. Further forward - a flurry of projects once my travels are over (and there's more after Denmark).
Thank you for reading (if you have, rather than just skipping to the conclusion). Writing has helped me set a "checkpoint" - noting where we are, why we are here and thinking forward though not putting fully into words where we may be in the future.
2013 - Melksham Trains Service restoration - some answers
I have been asked a couple of questions to set a historic context with regards the restoration of a generally useful (if thin) train service calling at Melksham from December 2013 (First day pictures) - in particular whether there was a local funding guarantee for the initial period in case we did not achieve the minimum passenger numbers required. And that was a good opportunity to put into perspctive much of what has happened over the last 12 years, and how we move forward. I wrote ...There was a promise that if the 108,000 was achieved by the third year that the operation would move from a trial to a part of the GWR franchise for its ongoing operation. I can recall an interesting session in our conference room with Claire Perry, at the time Rail Minister, after the first years’s figures were in. We suggested that having made the case, the future guarantee should be made to enable us to promote the services as a “for ever” for the benefit of the development of the area - however, we got strong pushback suggesting that our 180,000 might (!) have just been an initial enthusiasm that could wain.
LSTF also funded two extra morning and three extra evening runs of the Town Bus - from Bowerhill via Snowberry Lane and Melksham Forest to the railway station to connect with train departures at 07:20 and 07:50, and from arrivals at 18:00, 18:50 and 19:20. This was operated as a free service and ran for 9 months. There was never any long term funding plan for this. It was operated by FromeBus whose second vehicle was in the town anyway, and switched drivers in the middle of the day because of the shift length safety limits. It started in Autumn 2014 and by Christmas built up - we estimate - to a running rate of around 9,000 journeys per annum, with journeys also used (and not discouraged) for staff coming into Melksham Town from their homes (Skylark and Forest). A busy and very welcome little bus.
The initial intent was for the bus to be an “interim” measure prior to completion of the car parking extension at Melksham Station; a useful wedge operation (if your like) but to me even in those days not a particularly welcome situation; the transfer from bus to driving - with the implicit need for people to be able to drive wasn’t a clear like-for-like exchange and hard wired a car-centric ethos into the system. Never the less, over the coming couple of years, the car park use grew and at 6 p.m. every evening around a dozen cars left the car park just after the arrival of the train. In talking with people (as they arrived and awaited their trains in the morning) our motorist catchment area was to the south - Semington, Seend, Keevil, Steeple Ashton, and as far as Edington and Bratton - people parking in Melksham to use the train to get to work in Swindon in particular.
The bus users were anonymously observed on the first days back in 2015 and a councillor’s report lodged suggesting that the number using the service was low [that week] and that it was being “abused” by people using it to get from the Melksham ‘burbs to town centre jobs for free. This report was not shared with the community but undoubtedly influenced the early demise of the Melksham Rail Link bus; it was suggested that the remanent funding was transferred to a scheme to help fund transport for young people to and from evening activities, but as that wasn’t a service available to the general public I have no ongoing evidence of whether it happened or not, or if / how any funding saved on the rail link bus was then re-spent otherwise.
The car park at Melksham Station was such a success - it was nearly full - that a second enlargement from 20 to 50 spaces was undertaken, and the Community Rail Partnership (CRP) took over its operation, charging for its use from around 2019. The idea was that profit made would be rolled back into the work of the CRP. My concerns, expressed at the time, was that our customer base would be reluctant to pay. I know convention is that people pay for parking at stations - however, you need to look at the market. If they are already in their cars, they may as well pay to park at Chippenham, or Trowbridge, or Westbury from where they can take direct and much more frequent trains to Swindon, Bristol or London. And prices were set to match those other stations. I was told that the parking company, who I understand made their income largely from penalty notices, re-assured the directors of the CRP that after an initial blip on fee introduction, customers would return, but that proved not to be the case. The car park had quickly gotten itself a shocking reputation for issuing “fines” and customers who had been faithful, and were in their cars anyway, moved to neighbouring stations with more and direct trains.
There are many lessons to be learned from these experiences - both positive ones in terms of how useful a bus service can be, and cautions ones about promoting Melksham Station as a park-and-ride. It was also confirmed that a cafe serving wonderful breakfasts was welcomed by the businesses around - including customers waiting for tyres to be changed, and out and about in Melksham, but that it also needed speedy service to ensure people weren’t concerned that they would miss their train. The hire bicycle business was also (sorry) a lesson learned.
And - in spite of - all these issues - passenger journey numbers at Melksham have bounced back after Covid. We peaked at around 75,000 in 2019, and indeed had our platform and train expanded from the single carriage choke point (the 17:35 off Swindon). We are now at around 65,000 and for a service we grew on commuter numbers that’s not shabby - but still I meet more people who say “I don’t use it because” than actually use it. Reasons - poor frequency, unreliability, difficult to access and unfriendly station. It’s a good sign that all of those are appreciated and we conjecture, with multiple evidence flows, that a service running “clock face” - same time in each hour, once or - better - twice, that actually runs 98% or better of the time (and if it fails, there’s a quick alternative, known about and on the same ticket), and with an easy link for the “final mile” to residential and employment areas.
I am - to this day - remembered and addressed - as being a (or even the) key person behind TransWilts and the Melksham Train service, even though I left the board of the Community Rail Partnership as long ago as 2018. Community Rail, Great Britain wide, moved on from being a general “get bums on seats” operation to a “widen the attraction to more challenging potential customer bases” and that was right as a generality. Most CRPs had been formed in the 1990s and had achieved their objective, but exceptionally TransWIlts was only formed in 2010 (having been rejected as a potential part of the Heart of Wessex 15 years earlier as being such a problem I would bring that whole CRP down!). In hindsight, I would not have been the ideal candidate for Community Rail Officer in the new direction, Never the less, how it was done was hurtful in the extreme - tears at home (sorry, I do have emotions) the evening of the big 2018 CRP conference in Swindon where there was a special celebration of our first 5 years, but for which my chair ruled that I should not be on their invite list as part of their contingent. Bringing the story forward, I was relieved / delighted to be invited to the 10 year gathering and indeed to say a few words there to congratulate the whole team.
I remain - passionate - about sustainable travel to, from and within the greater Melksham area. From 2021 to 2025 I served on the Town Council too; that time both educated me and helped confirm that I’m far better as a specialist than as a generalist. A deeply uncomfortable time - not because of the public who are a delight but because of the competitive rather than partnership nature of the whole thing, and the taking for granted of the volunteers (including councillors’s time) on the altars of self-interest, party interest and system. Observing from somewhat outside now, my personal decision to stick with the travel niche remains 100% correct and these days I always have a “Plan B” alternative even to promised follow ups, and letting a volunteer down costs nothing. Alas, words are cheap.
On the positive side, there is so much we can and should be doing. I remain confident that with a substantial service improvement, better access to the station and better information, passenger numbers - up from 3,000 at a low point to 65,000 today, can and will - provided the issues are addressed - step up to 350,000 per annum (+-25%) a decade from now. Both improvements (service side and local access) need to be addressed, for this to happen a bus for the station if there’s no arrival from Swindon between 15:39 and 18:10 (which it is from 17th May) won’t make that huge change, nor will leaving the station isolated in the bottom of a business estate with only pedestrian and private car access.
With my passion, I will continue to press the case(s) for the community, even if it highlights different views and priorities between myself and others. But then very much work pragmatically in partnership for common good. I do not always see myself necessarily in exact parallel with how things are done, but very much appreciated the whole team effort and that a very good solution is often worth the compromise, even where it results in an excellent or perfect one being missed
Published Saturday, 2nd May 2026
Assembly Hall, Blue Pool, update
As promised on 27th March, an update on the Assembly Hall / Blue Pool – this as shared with me today – for passing on to the Friends of the Assembly Hall. Many thanks to the staff who went though this with me.Blue Pool
Melksham Town Council has been hiring a storage unit on Bowerhill. Now with the Blue Pool building in MTC's possession and nothing in the budget to take plans significant forward this year, the storage will be transferred into the Blue Pool. You may see ongoing work / activity there. Not only will this save the cost of Bowerhill unit, but it will also save on time taken to get out there and back.
A number of architects have been invited to take a look at the Blue Pool and make suggestions for the future, but they only have limited information about what's wanted. I understand that the outcome was presented to councillors a few days ago, but it sound like that's as far as it goes just at the moment. I have to admit that the seeds of this frustration lie in the spring of last year, when I was a councillor, with us failing to set a well considered budget, followed by our purchasing the Blue Pool without allowing for the costs it would bring ... and we then passed on the issue we had created to the new council. I would be surprised to see much more happen in coming months.
Assembly Hall
The hire model used by the Town Council for the past 4 or 5 years has made many of the bigger acts - who can choose where to play - not choose us. Whilst that model was set up with the best of intent to reduce our (MTC) risks of having to pay more to an act that we took in ticket sales, it has also constricted who comes here, and also (and this is crucial) the bar income. Although the bar has been a separate accounts line item and not clearly looked at in the whole picture, it really (IMHO, and I was glad to hear my view is shared) should be considered as a part of the whole picture.
Acts typically book a year ahead - so don't expect big names next week or next month. Next year, perhaps; the hire model this year can be changed on a case by case basis. My view, and knowing how we should trust our experienced staff and managers, that the Town Councillors should provide a budget line to allow this to happen at least some times each year. Our staff recruited for their skills and availability are far better placed to make the judgement calls with only a light policy framework from the councillors who are all volunteers with tight schedules and very different backgrounds.
Comments on both elements and wider
As a volunteer, volunteering for the Town Council, I have not always felt welcome, trusted appreciated. I'm not looking for thanks - I love the town and will make exceptions and go far further for my home area ("Greater Melksham") that I would more widely. I would probably be much happier if I didn't see volunteering frustrated by red tape or going into something which it turns out really hasn't gone anywhere. But I do appreciate that MTC has a financial and wider responsibly to its residents and has a whole lot of hoops in place which are at times burdensome and frustrating. The directing council can at times swing like a pendulum, change course, and change to other priorities.
Having said which - we have (as of this morning) 469 "Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall" of whom the majority are with us just for the information. But a proportion do want to help / volunteer, and amongst them we do have a lot of expertise which is tappable. And I'm encouraged to hear of an intent to make far more use of volunteers; I hope it goes along with far more supporting consideration of these people, and it sounds like it might.
Personally, I'm now much happier working in the travel and transport aspects of local life, and I'm much more limited in my stamina. I will - and do - interact with the Town Council and councillors on that, but where I'm running a project of giving of my time, I've learnt never to make Town Council help critical to a project.
I would encourage people here to help / volunteer if invited. I would encourage our council to think what effect you have on volunteers by not valuing them. And I will very much keep being admin for the FoMAH Facebook Group and web page
Illustrative Image - from our Options Study. Although approaching 3 years old, much still relevant
Published Tuesday, 21st April 2026
Looking back - how long ago was this?
Petrol cost 5s 5d per gallon - equivalent to 7.1 pence per litre , or £1.17 per litre at today's prices taking inflation into account. Car parking at Heathrow cost 10s (50p) for 24 hours "In London and some city centres, parking meters were common. In places such as Newcastle, motorists were often avoiding city centre parking, with many spaces being free or substantially cheaper than today." A Hillman Minx would cost you £672 new. It's hard to determine insurance cost comparison but indications are they were not wildly different in real terms to today's. Annual Car tax was around £17 10s (£17.50). There were around 12 million vehicles on the UK roads, around 8 to 10 million of them private cars. That was up from around 3.4 million cars just 10 years earlier; today (2026) the number exceeds 34 million. Some other changes to consider. The UK's population has risen from around 54.5 million to 68.2 million last year (2025). The average household size was 3 persons, which has dropped to around 2.3 persons today (that's why we need far more houses today in additions to renewals of life expired stock). Life expectancy at birth has risen in the UK from 71.5 years to 82 years today (that's why we have so many extra cost challenges supporting retired people). The UK State Pension age was 65 for men and 60 for women, The UK State Pension age is currently rising from 66 to 67 for those born on or after 6 April 1960.
When am I talking about? 1966 - 60 years ago - the year that Melksham, Devizes, and a whole host of other railway stations across Wiltshire closed. In the age of the private motor car, some thinning out of the railway network made sense. But although they may have looked right in the 1960s, some of the closures did not stand the test of time. There had been about 6,000 railway stations in 1955 and that was reduced to 2,358 passenger stations in 1975, with a further 500 for goods only. That has grown back up to 2,597 passenger stations today. In Wiltshire, numbers shrank to 13 or 14 stations (the questionable one being Dean, with a station entrance in Wiltshire but the platforms where the trains stop in Hampshire), but that has only risen by one today with the re-opening of Melksham in 1985. To this day, Melksham has the sparsest train service of any station in Wiltshire, even though the town is the 5th largest urban area. And passenger journeys at Melksham are just 2.5 per head of population versus 40 journeys per head at Chippenham, and 50 journeys per head at Bradford-on-Avon. The Melksham figure is uniquely low in the county by an order or magnitude. Why is this?
May I suggest that a great deal of the difference in usage relates to the service frequency; a gap in southbound trains from 06:29 to 09:09 makes commutes via Trowbridge difficult in the morning, and a gap in arrivals from north from 15:40 to 18:10 (a change from 18:00 next month) makes commutes via Chippenham difficult in the evening.
Melksham Station is less than a 10 minute walk from the Town Bridge, but a much longer walk from the main housing areas of the town, and there's not even a connecting bus service calling there to help. Houses in Foundry Close - and beyond them the areas of north Melksham and the path over the river to Melksham Forest - both areas of relatively low car ownership - are blocked from the station by a fence between two pieces of openly accessible Wiltshire Council land, with a walk of a kilometre from one side of the fence to the other involving crossing the A350 twice if you don't want to get mown down by a lorry as you walk along the road edge.
And the station is not welcoming. It's at the tail of a business park, unstaffed, no loos, and with lots of signage telling you what not to do and threatening penalties. There's no taxi rank; even the taxi space at the station gate has been painted out. Whilst there *is* a shelter, there's nowhere warm to wait. And whilst there isa help point (on the open platform) it makes a voice call to a distant call centre which often fails to re-assure or even answer common questions.
Each of these issues can be addressed, and should be addressed, and indeed is very much accepted as an issue and on the common radar of informed parties. Over the coming few years, we need to fix them and by doing to we'll raise our passenger journeys from - say 2.5 per head of population to 12.5 - a five times rise, or from 60,000 journeys per annum to 300,000. Partly by improving the core barriers to train use to and from Melksham listed above, but also by ensuring that new residents moving to the town find a station they can reach, a welcome when they get there, and a service that runs when they want it.
See:
* Improved train services at Melksham Station
* A public transport strategy for Melksham
* Information at the Station
Published Saturday, 18th April 2026
Advocating for, and informing, public transport travellers
This - at 04:00 on 15th April 2026 - is a "holding" answer. To be followed up here within the next 12 hours.I am writing in answer to a Facebook comment - "Graham Ellis - hoping the nearby GWR public train advocates are helping us train commuters. I’ve commuted day in day out for last 10 years." and that has lead me - in the middle of the night - to reflection on what I (and I count myself as a "public train advocate") do, and what we can achieve. The comment I've quoted was, perhaps, a throw-away line not expecting a full answer, but the question is a good one for me - or us - to ask ourselves.
Illustration - passengers at Chippenham Station as the train for Bath Spa and Bristol pulls in. Where are they travelling? Why? How did they find their traon and ticket information? What motivates them to travel by train? What would make their travel better? What would make it worse for them, yet be in a wider interest? How can I/we (and should we?) encourage them to engage wider with the system that provides their travel?
The original question / post was anonymous on the Sham Shout outs (here) enquiring as to why a Trowbridge to Melksham train ticket costs more than a train ticket from Westbury to Melksham, even though the journey from Westbury is longer and passes through Melksham. This in far from being a unique quirk in a complex system ...
Additional Follow up
"Graham Ellis - hoping the nearby GWR public train advocates are helping us train commuters. I’ve commuted day in day out for last 10 years." - written on a public Melksham Facebook page, by a commenter who's profile says he lives in Chippenham."
What a good question - a hook onto which to hang thoughts and answers of far more general interest. It behoves us (I count myself amongst the advocates) to hold up a mirror, and look at ourselves with critical review -
* what we do
* how we do it
* why we do it
* when we do it
* where wed do it
* how we can be best effective in our advocacy.
Some thoughts ...
* Should advocacy even be necessary? In an ideal world, perhaps not. Passengers should be provided with an appropriate, reliable service that's clear and easy to use, and over time with changing requirments and new technology. Sometimes explaining why we have to loose or change things.
* Our "Advocacy" should be two way. Not only advocating for the passenger to the public transport industry, but also advocating for transport industry to the passenger.
* Partnership rather than protester. We sometimes overlook that there arecommon / overlapping goals - we all want the bus and train systems to work and to carry happy passengers. At times that involves people being critical friends to one another.
* No formal mechanism / we are not joined up. Rather sadly, passenger advocate groups are not as joined up as they could be. There are some groups which look to hold a regional view, but very typically it's station by station and line by line, which is a pity because there are so many lessons to be shared, and for interfacing with the operators its so much more practical to look at the whole scene.
* Complexity and too many topics and directions
* We need to consider the wider picture
* Lots of good people
* Our skill set is limited
* How do we find the time and money Few people are funded to really represent the passenger. Trannport Focus are - to the extent of seeing how the system is working and acting as the passenger's policeman where something is not running right. It would be wonderful if real regular users with the same profile mix as passengers were encouraged - perhaps with remunerations or at the very least their costs covered to be advocates. But alas people are busy and can't afford the time during working life and family time, and it tends to be older folks who, sure, have plenty of experience but perhaps are more enthusisasts for heritage than modernisers, and are paying for it as they would pay for a hobby.
* Too many parties and interests
Published Wednesday, 15th April 2026
Planning for Melksham, but WITHOUT a Local Plan
Around 3% of the land area of the United Kingdom has been developed, and even if all the houses that our government wants in the next 20 years are built on undeveloped land and at a generously spaced density, that will only to up to 4%. Reports of there being "no countryside left" and "towns running into each other" are much exadurated. So why is there such a furry about planning applications and building of new homes for people where there's a very clear market for them?Illustration - some of the good in growth - on Pathfinder Way. Housing close to cycle and walk ways into town on a road which actually has a pavement. And a community defbrillarot and a bus stop which has services every 30 minutes to useful destinations. There were objections / concerns to this development - however, it's fitting in well and it's helping increase bus usage. And people living there don't need as many cars ... to congest our roads.
People want to live within or beside the communities that are there already. And builders prefer to build in that style too. It provides links to services and an economy already existing, and helps ensure an economic build without the need to build (and for ever maintain) long roads, pipelines, cable runs. But then the current services / capacity may already be stretched and there's a concern that they will not be adequate with the requirements of new residents added. Furthermore, existing nearby residents far prefer to be near to open countryside than within a larger developed area, and are anxious - sometimes with good reason - at how they will be effected by the new development, its pull on resources and its impact on their environment.
In Utopia, development and other changes are all planned in conjunction with one another and for the common good with a partnership between all involved with consideration and perhaps pragmatic compromise all around. But we don't live in Utopia; we were perhaps supposed to live in a more Utopian setup than we do, with an NPPF (National Policy Planning Framework) for the whole country, a local plan for our county, and a neighbourhood plan for our town. But the local plan has been thrown out after taking a year to be developed, and the previous core strategy is time expired. So we are left with the NPPF, and the Neighbourhood plan with - it must be stressed - an additional wide range of rules and regulations in the planning system, and the common sense of building where houses will be saleable and insurable to help prevent the worst of development stupidity.
So - what are our lessons for Melksham? Where does our town (by which I mean our urban area and the catchment around that looks to us as their hub) go?
We should value our Neighbourhood Plan and all the work done on it. It's endorsed by referendum and sets not only some legal guidelines, but also policies and philosophies against which our future direction should be promoted. That is not to say it can take over from the local plan (it can't) but it does fill some of the gap, and all the background work done on looking at and evaluation of around 100 sites informs Melksham Without Parish Council, where the same players are still in post, and should inform Melksham Town Council, where some of the same councillors remain, to help steer the future.
In the next years, without a local plan, and indeed beyond it behoves us to all work together with the tools we have. To encourage sustainable and forward looking development to meet the government's requirements and to ensure that community benefits - such as the right development type in the right places, and wider community and infrastructure gains for everyone - new residents and old - through section 106 and Community Infrastructure levies, as well as helping develops plan new estates in such a way that people will want to live there and pay a premium to do so.
There are going to be disappointments along the way. Way back in 2021, one of the first actions of your new (Town) council was to declare redundant the paid officer who's portfolio included economic planning and development redundant, and to close the "Priority for People" work that looked ahead as well. However, only two of your councillors voted to keep the role, clearly signalling that these future considerations weren't of interest to that council. After the changes in 2025, I'm no longer on the inside and can't speak with authority about the views, but I'm seeing the Economic Development portfolio of the town council bing much more reactive to planning applications as they are submitted rather than being ahead of the game. Perhaps that will change - perhaps (with the rejection of the local plan) the Town Council might like to employ or contract someone with a background in these matters to help pilot them and their keen-but-novice-in-this team of councillors and staff forward.
It is also disappointing that the planning inspector has allowed the appeal for an area of housing off Woodrow Road, against the decision by Wiltshire Council and against the advisory input of Melksham Without Parish Council. Reading from the inspector's report, I find myself wondering if he actually understood the points being made - he talks of it not being problem on the A350 (no-one ever suggested it would be) and talks of visiting without fanfare to see for himself - and I have to wonder what day and time he chose; traffic has its peaks and troughs and just because a road is quiet and with few walkers at lunchtime on a wet Tuesday in March does not mean that's the case even at morning and afternoon journey-to-work times, let alone on a lovely summer weekend when everyone is out - including the people driving up and down to Lacock and avoiding the A350 / Melksham pinch points.
But - we need to move on from the disappointments, even though we may believe this was a particularly unfortunate appeal to succeed. The next stages are the details where we can still influence, and the need to ensure the best community benefit - both for the existing communities and for the new community we'll be welcoming. My personal "public transport hat" noted that the planning application trumpets the nearest bus stop being on Methuen Avenue and suggests that means that the new residents will have a bus stop 50 metres away. Yes, they will but it's a fat lot of use for getting to and from work and school on current service, with the first bus of the day just after a quarter to ten! This needs to be considered - and before the new homes are sold to people who will be multi-car households, but rather to an incoming population who make appropriate use of public transport and do so in such as way they will help support an improved service that others around will want to and be able to use too.
Published Tuesday, 14th April 2026
Personal update - health incident
I rode the bus across Bath and connected on to Melksham this afternoon. A lovely bright afternoon, and seeing the beauty of the world and all its facets. Four pictures - Bath City Centre, a gull, an island bus stop, and Shaw Church. The fifth picture is in the RUH (Royal United Hospital) - the empty bed I was discharged from today prior to that bus journey home.I was called in, urgently, just before the weekend after abnormal test results. "Day Surgery" ward but I ended up being admitted and only being discharged this afternoon - Monday. Seeing so many other patients far worse off than I am is very humbling; I have lost the best part of a stone, weaker on my feet and tubed up, but nothing malignant. Probably a "day surgery" op later in the year. Discomfort but no pain; brain working ... a bit wobblier on my feet but still, already, well enough to use the bus home.
I know that starting three paragraphs with "I" is very self-centred, but just today and this one post IS me. I am refactoring April and knocking back plans to be away early in the month. These Easter weeks will now be a welcomed window to recover - a "time off" prior to a resumption of my norm thereafter. Big "thank you" to those stepping in for me at today's meeting and helping otherwise too. Knowing me, the time off will be a chance to have my thoughts wander, write, perhaps do some coding. And being around, I'll now be able to watch "Race across the World" and "Married at First Site". Convalescence - which this recover is - does not mean I will re-instate meetings - I'll be quietly at home, with perhaps one or two gentle outings.
Small print - My prostate is enlarged (but not in a malignant way) and has been stopping me pee-ing properly. Urine built up, to the extend it was damaging my kidneys. Putting a catheta in has relieved the pressure and let out (they tell me) 1.7 litres of excess liquid. Now for a few months, with the catheta, I am relieved into a sack ... while kidneys recover a bit, and tablets reduce the enlargement a bit prior to day surgery.
Published Monday, 30th March 2026
Melksham Assembly Hall and Blue Pool - Status??
My letter ... asks ...
Dear Assembly Hall manager and new councillors,
Can I ask what is happening with the Blue Pool (and Assembly Hall)?
As a councillor up until last May, with a keen interest in the Hall and Pool, chair of the Assembly Hall Working group until disbanded and a principal of the Friends of Melksham Assembly Hall which was set up, people ask me, and I don't know the answers. A lack of information is fertile ground for rumours, and raises fears of things that might be going on / be being planned which are short term things that may effect longer term prospects.
I am copying some councillors who were not seated prior to last May to commend to them the work and analysis done prior to that point - archive of papers at https://www.fomah.org.uk/library.html - by MTC, the working group, and friends who include experiences project planning and management folks, hospitality management and working skills, and community members and volunteers and organisers. The combined councillor and friends group was disbanded, with the work it was doing taken back as the lead responsibility of councillors (i.e. yourselves) assisted by others such as staff who you might instruct. Please copy this email to others who can help / better answer if appropriate
I commend to you the following previous work especially ... not necessarily to follow, but to inform you as to the possible, and to the knowledgable community thoughts:
a) Business Plan options
https://www.fomah.org.uk/lib/fomah_20230716_businessplan.pdf
b) Presentation of what could be done - options and alternatives
https://www.fomah.org.uk/lib/fomah_20230717_mtcpresent.pdf
I have been asked by one of the volunteers what is happening, and honestly I don't know. And where information is not known, rumours thrive. From my inbox:
Something that has worried me, I’ve heard they are talking about knocking down a wall in the Blue Pool so they can put two containers in there for storage so they can do away with the unit at Bowerhill. I seem to remember they talked about doing this in the park at one time. It was also said the Blue Pool building wasn’t safe enough to do anything else which is nonsense.
To me, it makes sense to move the storage and maintenance base into the town. But is does not make sense to do so in such a way that it ruins other options, nor is the building unsafe for anything else. We had a couple of experts look at / survey it ...
My correspondent adds
Personally, I think they’ve lost an opportunity that we suggested some time ago. No talk of a museum or cafe so that’s all gone out of the window. As usual the Council is proving to be short sighted unless the new independent group is more open to suggestions.
Again, rumours thrive in the fertile soils of none-information.
I am no longer a Town Councillor and I have taken a conscious decision to step back from a major role in anything Town Council lead - you have a new team now. I am aware that the previous council completed the purchase of the building in spring last year, but didn’t set the budget such that they considered ongoing costs that would bring. And I have more than enough on my plate with specialist transport stuff. But I would appreciate an update to pass on, and I am more than happy to chat through, explain, introduce, support in attendance events at the Assembly Hall and in events within updated facilities across MTC's estate, indoors and out.
Graham
Graham Ellis - travelling
graham@sn12.net, https://www.sn12.net
+44 (0) 7974 925 928
"Still around every day, even when away"
Published Friday, 27th March 2026
Melksham City Centre living & empty shops - looking ahead
In answer to Stuart Atkins' calls for thoughts ... at https://www.facebook.com/groups/412822440752288/posts/1308354237865766| So many empty shops and units in Melksham !!! Looks like Lidl’s moving - Avon empty - Unicorn looking in fantastic shape, Lloyds bank no takers and soon The Factory Shop. Town centre = Barber v Takeaway What does are town need ? To make it busy and attract other people to the town ( not massage parlour had that ) . Or do we think it will be all flats/town houses in years to come ( Avonside already put in planning for 21 flats ) What’s everyone thoughts ? |
... I have posted thoughts which are, perhaps, looking medium and longer term that next month or later this year. Looking to set up for the future and not try cling on to outdated pasts.
Here is my answer to Stuart - sharing wider as it gave me a hook onto which to hang some wider feedback
Melksham Town Centre, and other town centres too. They date back to a different era and need to find a new or updated use or set of uses aligned with our changed lifestyles and modern world technologies, capabilities, and restrictions and updates that come from that - things like safety, efficiency and environmental issues.
Grand statement - what do I mean? The future is to cherish our heritage, learn from history - especially recent history, and project forward to what works for the future. I would be wary to recommend anyone to set up a greengrocer, a baker, a candlestick maker in Melksham in a currently empty stop without a robust business plan. Yes, a shoe shop would be "good to have" but, frankly, would I use it? And I would not wish anyone the agony of setting up a business only to struggle and after a lot of passion and hard work close down in a short timescale.
Melksham is a growing town and you see busy businesses there. They are the social ones, and the ones that cannot be served in the same way by more efficient online outlets. So, yes, nail bars, barbers, pubs, cafes, takeaways, gyms and convenience stores for the odd bits and pieces. Even some of those, it could be argued, are better spread around the community and within a very short walk of Littlejohn Avenue, Chervil Close, or Greenwood Way.
There is so much, though, to be said for "Town Centre" living - accommodation where you really don't need the expense and hassle of a car, but are backed up by good and efficient public transport. Where you have cafes, restaurants, perhaps a gym, a barber - or a selection of each of these for variety. Where you have entertainment, perhaps a hall for events every week that seat 400, a smaller raked theatre, a museum and exhibition space, a swimming pool, meeting areas, perhaps still a library. And outdoor parks, safe walking and cycling routes, outdoor play and exercise opportunities and social places. Schools within easy walking distance and safe to walk to, and medical facilities for those of us who need to avail which are easily and efficiently reached.
The "Connected City" approach is a good one - and in elements we are already part of one. I go to Trowbridge and to Bath quite often - almost casually as a short journey by public transport. And we should - equal and opposite - have the same pull-back into Melksham, building on our town’s strength. We have an opportunity - the neighbourhood plan, the revitalising of town centre sites for new uses as industry has moved out, and the investment in housing some of which is designed under CIL and section 106 funding to prime the pump of infrastructure and facilities for the new residents, building a connected city which is good for our future, and for those people who share the facilities and the joys of Melksham but who happen to live in Trowbridge, Chippenham, Devizes, Corsham, Bradford-on-Avon or Calne.
Published Sunday, 22nd March 2026
Best use of public transport - Melksham
What will help people make better (appropriate) use of public transport?Jump down to the Melksham ticket machine "scam"
Jump down to my journey observations and lessons
Jump down to my conclusion as to what might be done
Information - cost - connectivity - comfort - frequency - reliability - all so well illustrated yesterday.
Lets's start with cost - but you will see every element came in here during journey from home in Melksham, England to my destinations (Mill Hill and Clapton) in London, and my return later in the day
From Chris Hinchcliff MP (Labour, new intake 2024) on Facebook
Rail fares in the UK are away too high.  This is spot on from We Own It. The broken privatised system is ripping off passengers getting on at Letchworth, Baldock, Ashwell, Royston, Bayford, Watton-at-Stone. Public ownership must mean more affordable journeys that's why I've tabled an amendment to the Rail Bill to create a GB Rail Card that delivers cheaper fares for everyone across the country. |
I have long advocated railcard available for all (or indeed a public transport card) - a loyalty card works for you if you are NOT young, NOT old, NOT ex forces, NOT disabled, NOT a resident of Cornwall, NOT travelling with a child etc; that headline £55 per 100 miles dropping with a loyalty card to £36 which will encourage more sustainable use of public transport.
I was in the South East (London area) yesterday, travelling around by public transport. For sure it was busy - at times over-busy - but there was no need to plan ahead during the day. There is a whole different mentality. Looking at the way the price of diesel has rocketed in recent days - an opportunity, perchance, to suggest people don't drive but take the bus or train. Yes, I am aware that many buses and many trains need that same fuel and have the costs which need to be met, but the fuel cost per occupied seat could be so much less than the car fuel cost per occupied seat?
We are fortunate to have an electric car, and solar panel, such that we refuel our car virtually extra cost-free. It doesn't make motoring free - we still have insurance, we now have road tax, we have maintenance and MOT, we may have parking changes or the hidden cost of parking in higher prices for goods we buy at a shop with parking. And if we drive, we are often stuck in the traffic whereas bus lanes and railway lines where they exist help us slice through the journey and make in quickly.
What holds us back from public transport? Matters of cost, reliability, frequency, connectivity, information, comfort and safety. ... let's see how those line up from Melksham for my trip
Yesterday (Saturday 14.3.2026) , I was offered a £94.90 standard off peak return to London from the ticket machine at Melksham Station. Bit overpriced? "Popular destination" for sure, but not a popular price. I preferred the £79.60 super off peak travel card - £15 cheaper and valid on any train "via Swindon" - which every connection is on a Saturday. And that ticket provides unlimited use of Transport for London underground, rail and bus services in London for the day too. Still looking at the price - I have a railcard in one of the privileged groups and that brought my fare down to £53. No extras to pay as I visited Clapton and Mill Hill (which would have together been an extra £12.80 / Tfl farecap), as well as old stomping grounds around The Angel, Islington.I paid £53. Without a railcard I would have paid £79.60. Buying from the ticket machine front panel, I would have ended up paying £107.70 and no-one there to ask.
As a side issue, the ticket machine at Melksham Station was also offering on its front panel of "Popular Destinations" a day return to Trowbridge at £14.40 "Standard off peak day return". Why? That is a ripoff - it's my belief that a day return for the journey - 10 minutes each way on any direct train except the 06:29 on Mondays to Fridays - is available at £5.80; price rises to £6.10 if you want to use the 06:29. The £14.40 fare, as far as I can make out, allows to to travel via Chippenham and Bath Spa with changes at both - and would rise to £18.30 for the first three Monday to Friday options - 06:29, 07:21 and 08:02. I would normally pay £5.80, or £3.80 with my railcard and very few people to my knowledge need the option of the long way.
To the right - from the brfares website
Let's take a further look at yesterday
I set off in the morning at 07:10 - the bus outside my home to the stop nearest to the station. The bus driver has a trainee with him and was commenting on the route - "the railway station is there" he said "it's crazy that we don't stop here". Indeed it is.
The bus dropped me off at 07:24 - not really a "connection" into the train at 08:02; I pottered back along the main road, relieved that I still have my senses and mobility to be able to cross the road without a formal crossing, lots of traffic, awkward curbs. Got to the area of the station at about 07:35. Next bus - on a Saturday not until after the train has left - next train not until 10:02. I could have quicker walked from home, which my app tells me is 1.56kms from home. Waiting at the station? Pleasant enough on a cold, bright morning, and time passed chatting with a local gent walking his dog. A cup of coffee while I waited would have been welcome; I lucked on the company and I could have done with the loo. My friend was telling me how useful a loo would be; not uncommon to find human excrement on the path and in the bushes down there to the side of the tail of the council's road. He would love to carry on his walk past that road tail into Foundry Close and was telling me how people did that while the fence that blocks one area of public road from the other was out through storm damage.
Train (to Swindon) reasonable busy, no ticket check - veritable flood of people by the time we got to Swindon. Loo used at Swindon; £4.30 for a rushed coffee was something I skipped, as the London train wasn't a long wait. Loo was used. Hoped for a coffee on the train, but the catering trolley - one for a nine carriage train - did not appear. Seat felt broken - very uncomfortable. Tickets not checked either, in fact no staff seen, and we arrived on time into Platform 1 at Paddington, no ticket check their either.
Paddington onwards to Victoria - I knew I could take the No. 36 bus or the "Circle Line" and I opted for the Circle Line - turn out the circle was "broken" but London Transport is such a network that train described as "District" and headed for Barking via Victoria turned up in a couple of minutes and got me there. A good example of an obvious alternative provided when things aren't running the usual timetable.
I'm skipping over London experiences during the day - keeping this thread / story to a Melksham-centric analysis.
Homeward from City station (near St Pauls, the Old Bailey, Smithfield and Barts) where I travelled through and around between home and Uni for four years in the early 70s. In those days it was an upper level terminus station "Holborn Viaduct" but now it is a low level through Station and the "City" name is right, between and beside the city itself, and in the quieter area before Westminster and the West End.
In theory ... 15:45 at City Thameslink, change at Farrington, Paddington and Swindon, 17:59 arrival at Melksham Station, home with a walk from the station by 18:30 was the plan; on a Saturday, the final bus of the day from anywhere near the station to our home is at 17:25; there are other not far from home, but it's easier to walk the whole way. Anyway - that was the theory. Plan A
15:52 train from City ... but it failed to stop at Farringdon (looks like the station or platform was closed) so carried on to St Pancras. Fair enough - but it's a LONG walk there to the slower Hammersmith and City line platform for Paddington which - when I got there - was also closed off with staff milling around turning away wannabe customers. Plan B
OK - plans A and B had failed - Plan C would have been the 205 bus. Except Transport for London withdrew that from Paddington last year, and I really didn't want to take two buses (205 to Harley Street and a change there) so I opened for Plan D. Victoria line to Oxford Circus, to change onto Bakerloo line to Paddington. Gonna be tight for the 16:32 off Paddington ... but, ah announcement in the tube "Severe Delays on the Bakerloo Line due to a signalling failure" and I switched
Plan E - Oxford Circus to Lancaster Gate on the Central line, short walk up to Paddington - and that got me to Lancaster Gate ... and which point I gave up on that plan as I'm no longer in sprinting condition to try for the 16:32 off Paddington - added to which my phone was alerting me to GWR reliability issues - "delays between Swindon and Bristol" it said; a pleasant afternoon to sit and relax for a few minutes in Kensington Gardens, and to regroup.
After the 16:32, the next train with a connection to Melksham is the 18:48. Looking online, the 16:32 would have made me very nervous - a person had been hit by a train, the 17:35 local train from Swindon only started from Chippenham. Good operational call in that local train waited and Chippenham for the connection, though it certainly wasn't obvious to me (not that I was there) that this would happen.
I walked up to Paddington to try my luck to get through the disruption. The 17:00 Bristol train was there, loaded, but as it was already a couple of minutes after 5 it was going to be late out. I think this is Plan F. The customer support person was checking all late arrivals on the barrier and initially denied me access - "this train does not call at Melksham" - but allowed me though when I asked if it went to Bath and I would change there. Due into Bath at 18:19, good time to walk to the bus station of the 18:45 to Melksham Town Centre - home for 19:45 versus 20:35 on the train into Melksham.
We left Paddington 13 minutes late "awaiting Driver". We sat at Reading for 10 minutes "awaiting Train Manager". We took 3 minutes at Swindon while a wheelchair ramp was deployed for a passenger joining. We sat for over 6 minutes at Chippenham - the train manager explained (but hard to hear) there were issues on the platform and no platform staff available to help him. And we pulled into Bath Spa just after 18:43. No ticket checks, no coming through to offer customer support - we chatted amongst ourselves, shared what we knew, as we went along.
OK - I know Bath. The train spewed out a whole load of humanity, a mixture of parties out for the evening already oiled up ready, and tired travellers with their baggage. I passed, quickly, to and through the back / level access barrier to avoid the main staircase or lift crush and delays from them, past the back of the station and though the undercroft to the pedestrian crossing where buses leave the bus station. And there sat, having already pulled away from the stand, the 18:45 bus. I gesture to the driver "may I join" and he (rightly, it must be said) gestured back "no". It's repeated incidents like this that have asking - again - why the 273 can't stop in Manvers Street directly opposite the railway station?
And so - a wait in Bath Bus Station. Plan G. The display screens there are segmented by bays, and the lower number bay display is switched off or failed - has been for weeks. 271, 272 and 273 - Bath to Melksham and Devizes all leave from Bay 5, and the timetable there does include up to day times. They are listed separately, so you go though three lists if you're looking for a common destination. A "next buses from this stand" like they have on Dorchester Street would do wonders. But then, it does say "some buses may leave from other stands" and so it proved with the next bus - the 19:15 - which left from Stand 4. Close enough for no-one to miss it, but a screen at the start with "next bus" including those which were running from different stands would help.
Single decker, 38 seats including the tip-ups in the wheelchair bay. All taken and more people joined the bus at the following stops. There were 47 people on that bus as it left Bath and only a couple got off along the way - Standing all the way to Victoria Motors, a few minute from Melksham Station - passed at about 19:57, which is 10 minutes before the following connection off London (arrived 20:07) got there. This 273 got me to the Town Centre rather than home - picked our tea and into the house at - I estimate - around 20:15.
Conclusion - there is so much that could be done so easily; systems will never be perfect and on days like yesterday where a person was hit by a train at Royal Wootton Bassett, delays and lack of information are understood, everyone does there best and is pragmatic about it, and the other issues are dwarfed into being overlooked. And yet - GWR offering higher fares that most people need to pay, people being turned away from trains when the baboon on the gate-line didn't actually know where Melksham was, and longer term joined up thinking (like buses that actually call for the station, more combines tickets like my travelard, and where they are infrequent at least have them connect could make such a big difference. With that one exception, the staff I saw were doing a professional job but there were too few to do a complete job of customer service. But on the other hand, systems were packed so as organisations looking to get the best financial return, is there any point in encouraging more use by addressing the issues - including helping people get the most appropriate ticket for their journey, and not the one that levers the most income for the industry.
Here in Melksham, information - about cost and opportunities, connections and comfort, frequency and reliability are key - just as they are elsewhere. They cannot be fixed entirely by just Information - "Information at the Station" and with a volunteer helping to share experience and guide nervous newcomers - but the can be hugely improved.
How GWR choose to see our bid will be interesting - whether they put the priority on customer help and information and what we can provide, or whether they see it as something that will boost ridership but will help customers though knowledge find the most appropriate fares rather than buying the headline ones. The concerns do spread in other ways to buses too - complaint on Thursday evening at MTUG that it now costs £12 to make a return but journey to the RUH ... and that simply because people don't know about the Avon Rider ticket at £7. Again - if the buses are rammed, why bother?
Published Sunday, 15th March 2026