A little history and a map on the land at Melksham Station

From a decade ago ... the BRB^▸ Residuary Body was looking to divest itself of land surplus to railway requirements, and that included the former goods shed and good yard to the east of Melksham Station

I wrote at:
http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2511_The-story-of-the-railway-land-at-Melksham-Station.html
http://www.wellho.net/mouth/2513_Wiltshire-Council-purchases-Melksham-Station-Land.html

And from The Wiltshire Times

Quote

26th November 2009
Rail boost for Melksham as council snaps up land for £500k

The future of rail travel in Melksham is looking brighter after Wiltshire Council revealed it had bought up land next to the existing station so it can expand if more trains are timetabled to run through the town.

A former goods yard, between the station and the A350, has been bought for £500,000 from owners, British Rail Residuary Board Ltd, the company that was set up by the Government to dispose of former railway assets.

Wiltshire Council insists this will ensure the station’s long-term availability for improvements to its access and facilities, if more trains were to use it in the long term.

At the moment only two train services each way run through Melksham on the Salisbury to Swindon line, but in the Department of Transport’s plan for the west, the number of services running through the town could increase dramatically, with a proposal for an hourly service.

Cllr Richard Gamble, portfolio holder for transport, said: “The deal is self financing and a long term protection measure designed to ensure that should there be an increase in the number of trains running through the station, we are much better placed to make improvements.

“Our aim is to create conditions in which a good train service can be an economic success and we are talking to train operators to try and persuade them to increase the level of service through the station.

“There may be some scope for a modest community-led scheme at the station and I am keen to hear any ideas.”

Graham Ellis, vice chairman of the Melksham Railway Development Group, which campaigns for a more frequent service linking Swindon with Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge, said: “This is fabulous news. That land has been owned by the Rail Residuary Board for a number of years and the transfer of land is a very positive step for the community.”

Mr Ellis said that if the land had been bought by a developer and used for housing, it would have left little more than a small public footpath leading to the station.

The site the council has bought includes the main Station Approach and land occupied by Novacast foundry and Melksham Truck and Bus, but It does not include the land occupied by the car repair garage, car tyre business and scrap yard.

Since the purchase, Novocast have continued to lease the foundry off Wiltshire Council. The other tenant changed, and in 2014 by mutual agreement released a part of their site back to Wiltshire Council, who used central government funding under the "Local Sustainable Transport Fund" to build a car park for rail users there. That's marked "4" on the map below in due course, the new tenant also vacated the sections marked "3" and "5", and it's sections 5 and 4 that TransWilts have now taken on. Section 3, which includes a substantial garage building as a truck and bus company would have used, is to be fenced off for separate leasing.

So ... red marker areas (4 and 5) are to be leased to TransWilts, blue marker areas (1 and 2) are / have been leased to Novocast, and the garage building and section 3 are (also) available for lease or perhaps have been leased already to another party. Area 6 gives access to the goods shed - in essence it's a path / road. Area 7 at the north of the site is a wedge of waste ground, accessed through area 6 and bordering on Foundry Close, where there's already a roundabout "pointing" at the fence.

Areas 8, 9, 10 and 11 (shown in White) are also Wiltshire Council land, though it is unclear to me as to whether they were part of the 2009 purchase or bought by / transferred to the council at a prior date. The buildings / areas with yellow pushpins has been sold off by the BRB body prior to 2009 and are now owned by third parties; the green pushpin shows the station itself, owned by Network Rail and managed by GWR^▸ .

Huge foresight on the part of gentlemen on the front row in the picture in the paper - Jonathon Seed (Wiltshire Councillor, leader of the Area Board), Richard Gamble (Wiltshire Councillor, Portfolio Holder for Public transport), Richard Wiltshire, mayor of Melksham and David Phillips, senior officer with Wiltshire Council and their real specialist. Do note that the "deal is self-financing" - in other words, lease costs and business rates from tenants means were / are expected to cover the capital cost in due course, or at least the interest and expenses on it.

The LSTF^▸ phase brought a free bus service to the station to help see the train use, but that was withdrawn when the 3 years of LSTF funding ceased. The car park has held on being free somewhat longer, but as growth continues as a further chunk of the land is being assigned to cars and to a cafe venture, that becomes a section that needs to generate income too - it's no longer an insignificant element to Wiltshire Council, and the LSTF money stream dried-up years ago.