If you happen to be in Melksham this evening ...

Travel and Transport account for a high proportion of our greenhouse gas generation, and we do well to consider the effect of that  on our ongoing environment - what we leave for our children and grandchildren.

In Melksham, and across much of The West, our trains and buses remain fossil fuelled.  Now that's far better than us all taking individual petrol or diesel vehicles - for energy use, congestion, and indeed the exclusive financial and medical nature that limits who can drive.   However - still an issue to be considered.



Promoted for the Melksham Environment Group - full flyer at https://mkmeg.org.uk/peb.pdf - other screenings un the area:
10th June - Trowbridge Old Town Hall
11th June - Warminster Athenaeum
26th June - Market Lavington Community Hall

 
sounds a worthwhile cause. Do they propose any sensible solutions to the many problems we face.

 
For some strange and inexplicable reason, I do indeed happen to be in Melksham this evening.  

I'll be at the film viewing, dispensing some excellently produced public transport related timetable brochures to anyone else who is there, as well as watching the film.

Melksham Assembly Hall is just behind the Town Hall, on Market Place.

Chris from Melksham.

 

Don't know ... hoping to get a report  .   I went up to Devizes on the bus to see the film there, but it was "booked attendees only" and full, and I was turned away at the door, then last night's showing in Melksham was organised after the trip away I'm currently on.  The Melksham Environment Group had use of the huge Assembly Hall and I can't imagine there was a capacity issue here; traction on marketing was less than gripping, and the date chosen clashed with the Area Board which is required attendance for unitary councillors and other movers and shakers too.

 

Two shareable reports ...


and


Background to that last comment ... as a free event with no need to register, our chair had been concerned that we would have an empty hall.  The concern was compounded when a number of the key movers and shakers who should have been attracted had a prior scheduled (Melksham Area Board) meeting

 

We used to have the Green Party, who when led by the admirable Caroline Lucas, sought to do exactly that.

Said party now under its new leadership however seems more concerned with convincing us that women can have male genitals, legalising hard drugs, opening up our borders to all and sundry and cuddling up to Islamists and as such lack the time to worry about the aversion of environmental catastrophe.

All a question of priorities I guess?

 
Er, that's a series of tropes pushed on the likes of Facebook and 'X' users by various far-right factions, often with the aid of what is sometimes generously referred to AI slop, and very often by organisations with shadowy and opaque funding and I suggest that it has no place on this forum.

Mark

 

"Far right factions/AI slop" like the BBC and The Guardian?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20e20rzje2o

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/28/labour-green-party-muslim-voters-gorton-denton

 
Your first link: on the Green party leader's policy towards drug use, it can be instructive to reflect on Portugal's approach - decriminalising drugs, done right, and treating the issue as health-related, can kick the legs out from under the criminals who supply them. (Though I note that alcohol is legal and at 9.30 this morning there were a group of people in the local park rather the worse for wear from drink, and necking the stuff from wine bottles...)

The Guardian article, more wide ranging - but it's always good with any article to be wary of the headline and often the subheading, as these don't necessarily reflect the content - indeed they often do not, and content authors are often wearily resigned to the fact that they have not input to headlines/subheadings.

That aside, tropes that are intended to weaken the qualities that hold a society together, identify people as members of outgroups, and make them the targets of hate, these should be seen for what they are.

Mark

 
The Green Party's development from a "single issue" party into one that covers all aspects of governance interest is a natural one and indeed is one that is a necessity for them to be taken seriously as a national party fit to govern or to be party, perhaps, to a coalition or to meaningfully holding a balance of power - either in Westminster or in regional authorities.

The single issue of the environment - IMHO (and this whole writing is IMHO) is enormous such that for the future it dwarfs so much else, but issues such as our fiscal management, how we interact with the rest of the world and how we treat the beings of the population in which we live need to be outlined as a policy objective framework at the least.   

Policy frameworks are going to, naturally, be led by environmental concern but must take the full picture in too.  They are going to gain the trust of the electorate in getting support which would be absent if they limit themselves to only environmental issues; if the answer to questions were to be "we don't have a policy on that" then they would not get the support of more than pockets of keen voters, though (as it is) setting out a policy framework is fraught with risk too in that it alienates people who disagree with the policies chosen.   

There is an opportunity for the policies to rethink what is accepted norm of the establishment, and in some places / cases that has been done.   The fact that elements of the mainstream establishment and other who disagree too are highlighting some of the framework and being less than kind / polite in how they do so shows how serious their concern might be to oppose this new party, when perhaps what we need is a step back and ask "why" and "what would that mean" through logical discussion and argument.

From what I read and hear, aspects of the Green Party policy are to the left of where I feel comfortable. At the opposite end, there are aspects of Reform policy are to the right of where I am very uncomfortable indeed.   I welcome the chance to discuss, and I wish there was a good way of ensuring that the discussions might result in policies and implementation of policies that are good for - well - the world as a whole, and co-herent too, rather than being formed with one eye on votes, support from those (all) of us who are only partly or patchily informed rather than being best for the common good.

Enough written on politics - we are a transport forum.   But transport is key environmental issue, and one in which government takes a key role.  I was in the Netherlands at the start of the week just gone, and I am now in Austria.  I am seeing both how public transport works to get people around, and how it links up to make that getting around easy.  I am seeing largely pedertisniased areas and with plenty of cycles and scooters around as people actively move between their activities.  I'm seeing lots of school parties out and about - polite children with clearly a mix of backgrounds.  At some times we are in with the tourists, but at others certainly not and seeing and learning - the intent being in my narrowed specialist travel and transport view - of how "they do it here".  It's not only about the travel and transport - it's also about how you locate your population to be practically transportable and indeed how much you need to do so.   

I am in a town that's got a population of about a third of that of Melksham Town.  It has a main line railway station - 2 tracks, 2 platforms with fast electric trains calling 3 times in the hour - same time each hour.  The station is unstaffed, but clear and well cared for, and the ticket machine looks usable.  Lots of bikes using the trains, buses connecting from the front of the station and signage in the trains telling you dynamically of connecting buses as you arrive.

The town has a number of apartment blocks all within easy walking distance of the station - 3 or 4 stories high as might well suit a society where people don't need private powered transport.   There are footpaths, cycle ways, and much green.  But don't let me give you a picture of Utopia - it isn't; there are aspects which could do with improvement.  My train yesterday was 6 minutes late - and as a result as I arrived at my first change, I saw my five minute longer distance connection pull out. In walking around, I've yet to find a convenience store (and I must find an ATM this morning), and the centre here is historic - cobbled and difficult to negotiate mobility wheeled. We are in the only accommodation I could find which has a lift to upper floors - stairs are a struggle these days.  But the place is a tourist Mecca ... more to be written on that.  Oh - and the tourists (at least the distant ones) are NOT arriving on the trains or buses - those are being shared / used by local traffic. 

The cost model for the public transport? I don't know. The investment is there; the station modern and with lifts - and ungated with checks on some trains. 3 or 6 car trains, passenger density not terribly high at the times I / we have travelled in the region. There are intermediate halts, and one on the trains each hour will call at those on request - you press a button on the train if you want it to stop, the display and announcements (German and English) give clear directions and the timetabling of it works.  The station here is flat access, with a step extending out as the door opens to allow cycles can mobility devices access; other devices on board or at stations where the level seamless access is not implemented.

I have gone absurdly off topic here - but perhaps it's an illustration of how the transport systems are fitting in to the environment and for the quality of life of the wide variety people who use it too.  And I can't help thinking that much of that is to do with the governance and how the local and national authorities provide an environment under which such a setup has been able to come about.

 
I have previously voted "Green" but the party no longer have my support, mainly because they are too far to the left.
In the recent years the "green" movement has become the latest re-incarnation of the hard left.