Tower and Town, April 2020 (view the full edition)Councillor Mervyn HallMr. Mervyn Hall is Marlborough's 709th Mayor. He joined the Council in 2013 and is now in his second term. Alongside being the town Mayor, he is also the Chairman of the Marlborough Area Neighborhood Plan Steering Group and is Chairman of the Council. He is a retired electronic engineer and a local historian. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, badminton and bridge. He is a Leicester City supporter. His grandchildren inspire him to be a better person, and his proudest moment as Mayor was the reaction of his grandchildren when they found out he had been elected. "The position of a town councillor is very hard but very rewarding," he said. He encourages people to become councillors, but says you'll need lots of free time. His advice is to try and understand where the majority of voices are and not to get distracted by minor ones; don't give in to everything. In Mr. Hall's opinion, affordable housing, traffic congestion, air pollution and the lack of car parking are the biggest problems facing Marlborough. All these big issues are being addressed in the Neighbourhood Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan hopes to get some more affordable homes and more parking spaces over the next 15 years. "Marlborough is an expensive place to live and many young people find it very hard to find homes here." There is also a bit of a labour shortage and many shops around the High Street have advertisements for jobs. Mr. Hall has accomplished many things in his two terms as Mayor. He helped to reopen the Youth Centre and to refurbish all the public toilets. If the Council didn't refurbish the toilets, the town would have none. But it's not always easy to make the changes he wants, since Wiltshire Council cut the town's budget and they have had to pick up the slack. "Working on a tight budget isn't always easy," he said. The High Street in Marlborough is a very interesting street, with its market, four churches, the Merchant's House, art galleries and many interesting shops. And when asked what he would change about the High Street, he replied that he would like to get rid of the parked cars which are causing congestion. But it is hard to find space and he is looking to put car parking on the side of the Common near the rugby club. "It has to be at the edge of the town because the land in the middle of the town is too valuable to turn into parking space." He hopes this will help the parking issue in Marlborough. The lack of a bypass around the Town was a hot topic in our interview and Mr. Hall firmly said that he was in favour of one and thought the town would benefit massively. They were planning to open one in the 1980s and the funding was there, but many people objected to it and farmers disapproved as they didn't want it going through their farmland. This was their last chance because the land has now been sold and is unavailable. He is currently looking at how traffic flows in Marlborough, governed by 5 roundabouts, and he is investigating whether changing them into traffic lights would improve quality of movement. Another project he is working on is to promote tourism in Marlborough. The town is involved in a project called the Great West Way which runs on the A4 between London and Bristol. There are many different towns and villages along the road which will hopefully draw tourists in. Mr. Hall is hoping to have Marlborough as one of the stops to promote tourism. A new hotel has recently opened up and this will help because now more people can stay overnight. He also said that crime and drugs are an issue in Marlborough. "Marlborough has had some drug problems in the past, but we're quite lucky that it's low." The town is regularly working with the police to catch people smuggling drugs up the M4 from London. Minimizing crime has also been one of Mayor Hall's objectives. One of the solutions includes increasing the use of small, but advanced, CCTV cameras with the footage connected through WIFI to a receiver on top of the town hall and directly on to the police. Mr. Hall is a fantastic mayor, and Harry and I could really see that he is committed to making Marlborough a better town. He has already done many wonderful things for the town and has plans to make it even better. Dom Cheng and Harry Meister |