EXPRESSIONS of interest for commercial and community space in Mayday Saxonvale’s community-led plan is oversubscribed with weeks of going live.
This need for commercial space in Frome’s town centre coincides with the cancellation of Mayday Saxonvale’s meeting with the leader of Mendip District Council, cllr Ros Wyke, and deputy leader of the council, cllr Barry O’Leary, to discuss non-planning aspects of Mayday Saxonvale’s alternative offer for the land at Saxonvale.
Mayday Saxonvale director, Damon Moore said, “After opening our expressions of interest for commercial and community space, we were inundated with local companies and organisations that are in desperate need of space to grow and so generate the jobs that Frome needs.
“It’s been incredible that within two weeks, we have already received expressions of interest for over and above the 11k sqm of town centre commercial space in our plan. This now reinforces what the people of Frome already knew, what the Planning Board knew when they approved our plan, and what we have been telling the council all along. The demand is there, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for businesses in Frome to grow, develop our local economy, and provide much-needed jobs in our town.”
Maydale Saxonvale say, “The district council’s asset management group (AMG), met on 24th August to approve the signing of Acorn Property Group’s S106 agreement (that sets developer obligations for areas such as highways and education). It was outlined several times in the meeting that the council are able to walk away from the Acorn deal and pursue other options for the Saxonvale site.
“Significantly, the council’s principal lawyer, Lesley Dolan said, “There is a provision in this Sales and Overage agreement [with Acorn] that either party can determine the contract with no fault. Now what that means is either party can walk away from the agreement.”
Following the AMG meeting, Mayday Saxonvale’s first meeting with the leader and deputy leader of the council was set for 5th October. The meeting was then later cancelled on 3rd October.
In explaining the meeting cancellation Stuart Brown, chief executive of Mendip District Council stated in an email to Mayday Saxonvale (dated Monday, October 3rd, 2022): “The council are not prepared to meet to discuss the Mayday offer as this will no doubt involve comparison with the other scheme where we have entered into a commercial agreement for a third party and it is not therefore appropriate to discuss that agreement with anyone other than that third party.”
Incredibly frustrating
Mayday Saxonvale director Paul Oster said, “It’s incredibly frustrating for our first ever meeting with the council to be cancelled. We’ve tried to get clarity on why the meeting was cancelled, and the council stated they simply cannot meet with third parties who have offers for Saxonvale as it would involve comparisons with the Acorn scheme. This completely contradicts the position they stated at the asset management group.
“Beyond the meeting cancellation, we understand the council has set completing our S106 agreement as one of the pre-conditions for comparing the schemes, but have thus far refused to participate in the agreement, so we cannot finalise it and meet their pre-condition, meaning we are stuck in a catch 22 of their creation.
“Meanwhile, Acorn is now progressing with detailed planning, often called reserved matters, and it is hard to imagine they are making this investment of time and money if they truly believed a fair comparison of the schemes was going to happen.
Council inaction
“The council appears to be adopting a strategy of ‘constructive ambiguity’ and inaction, allowing the situation to drift until no option but Acorn can be pursued. If this is not their intention, then they need to set out to Frome how and when a fair and transparent comparison of the schemes can take place.”
After the asset management group signed the S106 agreement, this completed the Acorn Property Group outline planning process and a decision notice was issued a week later. Mayday Saxonvale warned prior to the meeting that this would then be the only opportunity to challenge Acorn’s planning permission and so would have to be taken.
Mayday director Damon Moore said, “We, and others, suggested a delay to the Acorn S106 to enable a comparison between the two schemes to take place. Unfortunately, the council went ahead, and I have lodged judicial review proceedings against Acorn’s planning permission. Central to this is the planning harm that the Acorn scheme contains in not meeting the council’s affordable housing or employment space requirements, as well as harm to heritage buildings and structures. This is harm that the Mayday scheme does not do, and when the planning board approved the Acorn scheme seven votes to six, it did not have the Mayday scheme, which was approved 12 votes to three, in front of it, as it would now.
“Of course, if the council believed it would still be approved, they could decide to not respond to the judicial review and let Acorn return to the planning board for the third time.”
Mayday Saxonvale are now launching a public declaration, asking local people to sign, it states, “We call on Mendip District Council to compare the Mayday and Acorn schemes for Saxonvale fairly and transparently, to ensure the right plan for the future of Frome is taken forward.”
This has already been signed by over 1,700 residents of Frome and local district councillors.
For more information on the full Mayday Saxonvale planning application and to add your name to the declaration visit, maydaysaxonvale.co.uk/
