Plans rather than resolutions for 2024 - including the Coffee Shop

I'm making plans, not resolutions, for 2024. "Plans" strike me as positive, whereas "resolutions" have a flavour of giving up things. For sure, some things will be given up, but the focus is on looking forward.

I'm writing this from on board "Iona" with just over 5300 other passengers - coming up The Channel and into Southampton tomorrow after a semi-break for Christmas; New Year at home. We've only been semi-away - news flows here via TV and Internet, so batteries recharged but yet no big restart needed.

This (December 2023) month we celebrated 10 years since the restart of a useable train service calling at Melksham, and it was wonderful to see so many old friends and colleagues - some of whom had jobs that put them at odds with our campaign and to see what we have achieved. But yet that task of supporting public transport is far from over and this celebration was much more a "checkpoint" and far, far from the end of anything. 2024 will bring more and not less activity that relates to public transport - there is work to be done; the current setups are a long way from perfect and it's just about the most hostile governmental environment for public transport - rail especially. Others have pulled out and there is a gap to be filled.

If it's 10 years since the trains started calling at Melksham during the day again, it's coming up to 18 years since the "First Great Western Passenger Forum" - the "Coffee Shop" where we chat through passenger and rail aspects was formed. I remain the host and webmaster, with a wonderful team of people as admins and moderators on this public website keeping it friendly, clean and on topic though being there with the people and not typically as web police. The forum has gained us a significant audience, including not only passengers but operators and decision makers - even "the man from the ministry". 2024 brings a "steady as she goes" approach though there are always updates and considerations which you'll see over coming months.

All the work done in running the "Coffee Shop" has trained me well in public interaction and social media interaction - something I am very comfortable with. It's set me in good stead for working wider. It's taught me that clear guidelines, and full, correct and easy-to-find answers and data and explanations. That's the opposite of a "need to know" philosophy which, rather sadly, I have found prevalent in Town Council work, where public enquiries seem to be treated as malicious attempts to find fault but then that is magnified when answers are incomplete and given to different questions than the one asked. 2024 brings an ongoing situation ... to be continued.

This year gone took us by ship from Southampton to Mexico and the USA, and now (as I write) to the Azores and the Canaries. Within the UK^▸ , leisure travel also took me around the Severn and Solent area during the summer. 2024 will bring Interail travel as in 2022, and we have a further trip (much shorter than the Transatlantic one) from Southampton. Many meetings will be attended remotely, but archaic laws and staff and operational issues all reduce what I can do for the Town Council on Zoom, and I will plan around vital meetings. That's not a problem - except when "emergency" extra meetings are called and - yes - I did put the word "emergency" in quotes because at times it's assumed that volunteer councillors will drop everything in their personal lives to make meetings planned at staff convenience. Let's see what the next year brings.

In 2022, one of my councillor colleagues asked if I would stand for mayor, but she moved on to support a different candidate in the 48 hours I had asked her for to consider it. In 2023, a different councillor asked me if I would stand, but the following conversation lead me to believe that he may just have been fishing to find my plans. At the annual doling out of committee places and chairs, I declined to take any chair. Public meetings are "lively" to put it mildly, and with my lack of directional hearing I am not a good candidate to chair such meetings. 2024 may bring the question again. But it already shows signs of being a year of aggressive campaigning for re-election. For the greater good of Melksham, there is a need for a strong mayor for the final year of this council with us all supporting him or her. Unless there was a massive change of character by certain of my colleagues in the council, bringing us all together for the common good, I am not the person for the role.

In 2023, we took the Melksham [Town Council] Environment and Climate [Working] Group forward by leaps and bounds. I am delighted and privileged to have been asked to chair it - it's friendly and effective with some marvellous people all looking at similar but enormous issues. We've taken to meeting every 3 weeks ahead of the Economic Development and Planning Committee (this connexion being that it's convenient and efficient for staffing). And many of our members and others meet up away from the working group to progress things too. 2024 will bring a great deal more activity; as individuals we can only make a small difference but as informers, instigators and example setters we can do so much more. Watch this space - it's a biggie!

The future of the Melksham Assembly Hall was very much in question a couple of years ago as we recovered from Covid and look at the financial drain it had put on the Town Council's ratepayers during that period. I am delighted to report that the public voice has been heard, that there are full houses, that the hall is in use for an astonishingly wide variety of tasks and that a fabulous team of volunteers is helping to a limited extent and are ready to do so more. 2024 starts with a complete replacement of the employed (non-casual) staff and with that the loss of our in-house experience that will make the year a challenge. We do have a good person new in the role, and I very much hope the support she needs is there; for my part, I offer that support but it remains to be seen how that works out wider. The repair of the roof starts next week (at last!!) and that should ensure that the hall remains watertight and operational.

Adjoining the Assembly Hall is the Blue Pool and it shares a wall. It's owned by Wiltshire Council but they no longer need it, and have offered it to the Town Council as an asset transfer. The idea is mighty attractive, with multiple good-looking business plans widely covered elsewhere. 2024 will take us forward with those plans and I would anticipate there being progress. Experience over the past 9 months suggests that everyone will have different views and my fear is that short term popularism to get re-elected in 2025 may bias the position some take - short term tactics taking precedence over the best long term strategy. I also fear that we may not have the expertise we need; I hope we take on appropriate project management resources which we need beyond the time available from our staff, even if we have the skills on our team.

In 2023, I helped run the Splashpad - one shift a week through the summer and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so. 2024 may see me back on the Splashpad or on other volunteer tasks, but there's so much more (see above) that I wouldn't be sure of having the time. Sitting at the Splashpad and keeping an eye on things does, however, give me a chance to meet with people, understand what we are doing, and in quieter times get on with "paperwork".

The Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan has been a massive job this year. I have joined the steering group to represent the Town Council, and am vice chair. Amazing credit to the chair and the clerk of our sister council - Melksham Without - for their huge support. 2024 should see the plan going forward through legal process of being checked out and to a local vote so that it can become a valid legal planning consideration. Important work, finishing off the bulk of what was done over the last two years.

At the start of this year, we had three guests from Ukraine living with us as part of our family. Brother and Sister arrived this year, and the other three have moved on. We love having them with us - people say we are heroes but, no we are not - it's a pleasure. 2024 is a whole year and I have no idea where we will be on this 12 months from now. Yes, of course Lisa and I will be willingly there to support our wider family. But yet this is a transient situation for these people, so we will see where we are by next Christmas.