The transparency of Melksham Town Council was called into question at a recent HR sub-committee meeting.

On Wednesday, August 12 members of the public and councillors alike queried why questions asked at last week’s ‘disaster’ meeting were yet to be answered.

Cllr Mike Sankey and Cllr Sue Brown both reported that questions had been left unanswered by Melksham Town Council from the previous meeting.

Wiltshire councillor, Philip Alford brought up the current makeup of the sub-committee itself, which is made up of all independents (former LibDems) and to create the necessary political balance at least one member should be from the Conservative group.

“Is that something that’s been organised, or have you thrown that recent membership together?” He asked.

“Were the Conservative group asked if they wanted to have a representative on the committee?”

The chairman said that she believed this was also cleared up last week but said that she will reply to Cllr Alford in writing.

It was pointed out by Bryan Clover that those questions left unanswered from public session may have been answered during the portion of last week’s meeting where press and public were excluded.

Mr Clover then asked, ‘how long do people have to wait for transparency?’ As the recording of the meeting, last week has yet to be uploaded to YouTube and the minutes be made available.

Richard Wood asked if the answers to the questions would be made public. This was confirmed by Cllr Aves, who said that they will be included within the minutes of the meeting, providing they do not contain any confidential information.

Cllr Alford followed up Mr Wood’s question, asking where these answers would be made available and how transparent the answers would be.

“It rather comes across as if it’s kind of closing down any kind of debate,” he said.

Cllr Aves replied: “It’s the same as it is at full council in Trowbridge Phil. The answers to the questions will be published with the minutes.”

It was pointed out by Cllr Vanessa Fiorelli that there were only 15 minutes allotted for public questions before Pam Wiltshire began to ask a question and was muted.

When asked for clarification on why she was muted no further explanation was given and the council moved to closed session.