COMMUNITIES that have missed out on getting millions of pounds of investment through the council campus project could be in the running to get a cash injection to improve facilities.

While Pewsey, Calne and Corsham are among the towns that have seen or will soon see new community campus centres built for their area, Marlborough, Chippenham, Bradford on Avon, Amesbury, Southern Wiltshire , Tidworth and Trowbridge have not had the same boost.

Opposition leader Ian Thorn has described the campus projects costing millions to deliver new swimming pools, libraries and community places, as a “winner take all” process where towns have either seen huge investment or missed out entirely.

Now cash has been announced to fund projects in the towns that missed out, expected to be around £500k initially, to help town councils or groups provide projects with 'social value'.

Projects could include making asset transfers of council owned buildings over to communities, investment in disused buildings to get them back open for the community, or cash to launch a social project.

One success story hoped to be repeated in other towns is a £100k grant to get Westbury community centre back up and running.

The centre, which has been left closed for several years, will see graffiti scrubbed off the walls and a host of children’s, older people and community groups move back in to use the site.

Leader of Wiltshire Council Philip Whitehead said: “I am very conscious there are areas that have benefited and areas that have not benefitted and I would like to explore and investigate whether some areas could benefit from comparatively small amounts to give provision for local facilities.

“Over last two months number I have had meetings with a number of town councils and individuals saying they would love to look at this or that project.

"A number of towns and town councils say they would like to reinstate their town hall or move a library and can’t quite achieve the funding, but we can examine this and achieve funding for some."

The announcement has been welcomed, but opposition councillors warned not to raise people’s hopes if the project isn’t a success.

Cllr Ian Thorne said: “It has been such a winner takes all process, those who have done well have done very well and those who haven’t, have done very poorly. The issue of managing expectations is critical for this process to be a success.” Cabinet supported the scheme.

Cllr Jon Hubbard added: “Any process should include some form of support structure for organisations that helps them through fully understanding the regulatory implications, working to understand how make this sustainable.”