A RANGER has been employed by Frome Town Council to help maintain and keep the town centre tidy, following concerns from councillors and residents about the cleanliness of the streets.
At Frome’s full town council meeting on Wednesday 4th October, cllr Nick Dove said a new member of the council team had been employed to look after the town centre. This follows concerns raised at the meeting by a resident, who said, “Weeds in Frome. It’s really terrible all around the town. Is anything going to be done about it? There’s weeds all the way down Bath Street and St. John’s Church.”
Cllr Nick Dove acknowledged this was an issue and said the new town centre ranger starts on 16th October. “The following week [after he joins], I am going to walk around the town with him and point out the areas that I would like him to focus on, weeds are one of the things,” said cllr Nick Dove.
“The challenge has been for the person whose job it has been, is that he had no equipment at all to deal with it, which meant he was hand weeding everything which would take a long time. We are looking at getting a useful piece of equipment that will allow [weeds] to be mechanically removed. I absolutely understand it’s a priority and has a big impact on the look of the town and of course the weeds attract litter.”
Cllr Fiona Barrows said the town’s local Hoedown group has been trying to address the issue of weeds in Frome by mechanically removing them. “The Frome Hoedown on Facebook, which is run by councillor Shane Collins, is always looking for new areas to pay attention to, if you contact them on there and say that you would like them to look at Bath Street, I am sure they would be happy [to do that].”
Improving the look and feel of the town centre has been a priority for the town council, which has been exploring ways to re-invigorate the area following an increase of empty shop buildings, lower footfall and complaints about the untidiness of the town centre. Employing a town centre ranger was one of the ‘quick wins’ the council wanted to do to start achieving this.
For more information about Frome Hoedown visit: https://www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/your-community/community /frome-hoedown/
