Melksham 2026 –

Planning for the Future

A Steering Group of local people with representatives from Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council have been working together for some time together to prepare a Neighbourhood Plan for their shared areas that will set out the local planning policy and priorities for the town.

The 2011 Localism Act gives communities the power to produce their own Neighbourhood Plans which will influence future development in their local area.

Such plans are focused on shaping the built environment and can:

Identify a shared vision and common goals for a neighbourhood.
Define where new homes, shops, offices and other development should be built.
Influence what new buildings should look like and set design standards.

A Neighbourhood Plan puts in place planning policy for a neighbourhood area to guide future development. In our case the Neighbourhood Plan area covers both the Town of Melksham and the Parish of Melksham Without.

The Plan must also build both on evidence and local views, opinions and aspirations, which is why we have also created different ways for your voice to be heard through our engagement and consultation events held over the last 5 years.

All this information has shaped the content of our emerging Neighbourhood Plan, and will continue to do so with more consultation and engagement to come on a draft of the Plan.

We think it is very important that the local community has a voice about what local public services are needed. Hundreds of comments have already been received for local people from surveys and other community events that we have participated in. We still want to hear what local people think is needed to make Melksham and its surrounding villages a great place to live, to work, to play and to visit.

Watch this space for more news about the next opportunity to get involved in the development of our Neighbourhood Plan.

Keep engaged and add your voice and in activities and when new consultations and discussions are added by joining our online community below:

The Neighbourhood Plan will only cover areas within the boundaries of the Melksham Town and Melksham Without Parish Councils. It does not cover the outlying parishes which are included in the Melksham Community Area.