Chairman’s Report November 2024
The new adventure trail in the playground at Castle Hill Lane will now be open. Now, we will be setting our eyes on improving the larger play area on the recreation ground. This has many users and we shall be seeking their opinions on how best to provide for youngsters and their parents. Our project coordinator and councillors have visited other play areas to garner ideas. We want to make improvements that will make the recreation ground more amenable to all users. I would hope that 2025 will see a new and popular revision to this important feature of Mere.
The Mere Literary Festival was, again, a successful event for the people of Mere and brought visitors into town. Wiltshire provide some funding for the purpose of making Mere attractive to visitors and we discussed plans for the coming two years at the October council meeting. One aspect of this will be our ensuring that what happens here in Mere is published on a website called ‘Explore Wiltshire Events’. ‘Mere Matters’ gives you and me detailed information about what is happening in our town which will now be publicised to a much wider audience. We shall allocate some of the funding towards improving the town dressing and to commemorating noteworthy residents with blue plaques.
We have taken another step forward to providing EV charging spaces in Salisbury Street Car Park with the signing of the licence agreement. In conversation with the provider of the equipment, once this paperwork is finalised, it will not be long before this will be available to electric vehicle users in Mere and we intend having favourable tariffs for Mere residents.
We shall be looking at how the Public Conveniences can be improved and whether we can provide a small community hub there as well. This will be an expensive matter and we are likely to have to use a government loan to realise our plans – you will hear more about this as the plans develop.
I was pleased to attend, like many councillors, the AGM of Seeds4Success. This is always a pleasure, seeing and hearing from the young people of the area and those who work with them. This is a really marvellous asset for Mere and I will thank them for their combined efforts. Well done Seeds4Success!
I was disappointed to report to the council that we are no further forward with communication or action from the Local Highways Improvement Group. We have important matters, such as the safety of pedestrians at Edgebridge and the safety of all at Hazzards Hill, where our plans are at a standstill.
Do come along to our next council meeting on the 4th November, in the Andy Young Pavilion and see local government in action. In the same week, on the 9th do come along to the fireworks event provided by the Friends of Mere School. This is a very popular event and I would suggest that you walk to it as the roads around the school were jam packed last year. I hope to see you there for lots of ‘oohs and aahs’.