Prep work to begin at Melksham House site as workspace facility start to take shape

Preparation works are set to get under way at the Melksham House site next week (25 July), which will mark the next step of the historic building becoming a flexible workspace and multi-purpose facility for the community.

The work, which see the building site being set-up, will be carried out by Beard Construction. Full construction will get under way in early September, with work expected to be completed by winter 2023. Efforts will be made to keep any disruption to locals to a minimum and the work taking place will not impact Melksham Community Campus.

At the end of 2021 Wiltshire Council's Cabinet agreed to release £2.8m funding, along with the £2m that was already in place, to refurbish and redevelop the Melksham House site, as well as demolish the Blue Pool.

When complete, the refurbishment work will provide flexible office and meeting room spaces, and the community hall at the rear of the building will be restored to create multi-use activity spaces. The improvements will include modern sustainable technologies such as LED lighting, air source heat pumps, photovoltaics and electric vehicle charging points. Planning consent was granted in October 2021.

At the start of the year, preparatory demolition took place, which included the demolition of newer parts of the building, as well as the removal of some of the internal fittings and finishes.

Cllr Phil Alford, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Strategic Assets, said: With the new campus opening imminently, it's good to see activity on the ground take place for the Melksham House project - it's a realty exciting time for the local area.

One of our top priorities in our Business Plan is for Wiltshire to have a thriving economy and we believe a quality workspace that we're creating will be an attractive asset for the town and local area.

We're looking forward to full construction getting under way in the autumn and seeing our plans start to come to fruition.