WESTBURY may still not see its community campus for several years, but the planning team is insistent that the planning momentum must be kept up.
The first consultation about a leisure campus in the town took place in 2013, but tangible progress still does not appear to be any closer.
It has been confirmed that Westbury is not included in the first phase of towns to receive the developments, and there are doubts that any work will begin before the next council election in 2017.
Councillor David Jenkins is the Westbury Community Campus team’s area board representative.
He said, “We have a very enthusiastic and dedicated team working on plans for the campus, and we are set on continuing the momentum.
“Wiltshire Council have had difficulties with funding in phase one, but I don’t see that as a reason for us to stop. We’re determined to push this forward because it is important to the people of Westbury.”
The campus plans, revealed at a public exhibition in December last year, include redevelopment of the library, swimming pool and Leighton Recreation Centre. Improved facilities for young people and artificial sports pitches were also on the agenda.
Campus projects are being rolled out across the county in phases; Westbury will have to wait until the first phase of towns are complete before work can begin.
Cllr Jenkins continued, “The objective is that Westbury Community Campus will be involved in the second phase of development. To be perfectly frank, I don’t know when that will be. The next council elections are in two years and I don’t know if it will be before that.
“However, that doesn’t mean we should stop working. There is still a lot to be done! It’s important that we continue to strengthen relationships between the campus team, Wiltshire Council, Westbury Town Council and the local community.
“We don’t want to see the project get left dead in the water. We want to encourage everyone to work closely together to do as much as we can at this stage.”
Concerns about Wiltshire’s campus projects have started to be realised after it was revealed recently that Melksham Community Campus would have to be scaled back due to budgeting problems.
