It's official: we're going to think about having a campus

We don’t know where it will be built, we don’t know what it will look like. We don’t even know for certain that we’re going to get one. But at last night’s meeting of the Marlborough Area Board, civic leaders agreed to at least start looking a plans for at new Community Campus building.

The Wiltshire Council community campus would house a host a number of public services under one roof, and provide a one stop shop for the users of council services.

It’s part of the council’s drive to reduce the number of buildings it inherited when it became One Council for Wiltshire – around 250, many of which are in a bad state of repair and would cost more to fix than replace.

In some towns, work is already underway. The £11m Springfield Campus in Corsham is under construction, while the council is testing the principle of community-led management for campuses in Amesbury, Bradford on Avon, Calne, Chippenham, Corsham, Cricklade, Devizes Melksham, Pewsey, Tisbury, Tidworth, Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury and Wootton Bassett.

Telling members of the Area Board that campuses (campi?) have positive impacts for the council and council tax payers, and that they would be built with an ‘invest and save’ approach, Lucy Murray Brown of the council’s Transformation Programme team, outlined a timetable for action.

The audit and research, she suggested, should take place in the autumn and winter of this year. There would be two phases of community consultation: one in the spring of 2014, a second in the autumn. The area board would consider the proposed scheme in the winter of 2014, and the council would consider the proposal – as it already has with seven projects – in the spring of 2015.

The audit will establish the unique needs of Marlborough: which services are most important to the town and 19 surrounding parishes. In around 18 months time, the Area Board – which will lead the project – will need to be able to propose a specific facility on a specific site to Wiltshire Council.

Whatever we get, the campus is likely to be in the town of Marlborough itself. “Naturally we tend to look towards the urban areas,” said Lucy. “But we do want parishes to be involved in this. Other areas had issues around accessibility, and solutions like mobile campuses and improved public transport have been proposed.”

Deputy mayor Marian Hannford-Dobson wondered where the campus would go. “There are not many big buildings that belong to Wiltshire Council in Marlborough except the leisure centre,” she mused.

“I can’t see how we can bring a campus together when we don’t have a plot.”

But Wiltshire councillor Jemima Milton responded: “There’s always the youth centre, but it’s not just about what Wiltshire Council owns; it’s about what other public services own too: in Corsham it’s the old police station.”

And Martin Cook of Marlborough Area Development Trust – who teaches at St John’s School during daylight hours – remarked that there was a two-acre site available next to the school.

Wiltshire councillor Stewart Dobson made a proposal to delay the discussion until November, suggesting it would be unfair to make a decision without the presence of representatives from all 19 parishes.

But a frustrated Jemima Milton countered that all parishes had received an agenda and were aware that a decision to move ahead – or not – was to be taken at the meeting.

Councillor Dobson’s proposal to delay progress was voted down by 23 votes to 1, with only his wife – Marian Hannaford-Dobson – backing him.

This led to an outburst that raised hackles in the room, when she seemed to suggest that not everyone at the meeting was capable of understanding what was being discussed.

“There are some people here who have never been here before, but have come to collect grants,” she said. “Some people really don’t understand what is going on here tonight.”

“The fact that they’ve never been to a meeting doesn’t mean they don’t get a say,” snapped councillor Milton, while former town councillor and Transition Town member Richard Pitts took to Twitter to remark: “At Area Board Cllr Hannaford-Dobson is breathtaking in her arrogance! ‘People only here for grants, don’t know what they are voting for!’”

Community manager Andrew Jack pointed out: “There are months and months of work ahead before a decision is made.”

The board agreed to press ahead with the formation of a Shadow Community Operations Board (SCOB) to plan how the campus policy can be applied to the area.

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