By Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby
FROME residents have cause for celebration after plans to revitalise a key brownfield in their town centre were approved.
Mendip District Council has been seeking to redevelop the Saxonvale site near the River Frome, twice granting permission to a scheme by the Acorn Property Group for 300 new homes, commercial units and an arts and heritage venue within the ‘western warehouse’.
Alternative plans put forward by the Mayday Saxonvale group have gathered significant public support, with hundreds of residents surrounding the site during the May Day bank holiday in a show of solidarity.
The council’s planning board has now given the Mayday proposals its official backing following a meeting held in Shepton Mallet on Wednesday evening (August 17).
Here’s everything you need to know about the decision – and crucially, what happens next:
What do the Mayday Saxonvale plans entail?
The Mayday Saxonvale proposals will see a smaller number of homes delivered within the site – 182 rather than 300 – along with a hotel, a spa, a music and performance space, a lido and a new footbridge over the river.
Of these 182 homes, 40 per cent will be affordable – higher than the council’s own 30 per cent target for any new development of ten homes or more.
The plans originally included the relocation of St. John’s Church of England First School, which is currently located on the A362 Christchurch Street East, less than a mile from the Saxonvale site.
However, these proposals have been amended following an objection by Somerset County Council, which is responsible for education.
Instead, the development will contribute a total of £1,871,078 towards new school places at Frome’s existing schools – including £234,732 for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The development will also provide £299,936 towards improvements to the Gorehedge roundabout in the town centre and a further £310,128 towards schemes to upgrade the Beckington and White Row roundabouts on the A36.
How much support do the plans have?
In addition to the hundreds who surrounded the Saxonvale site on the May Day bank holiday, more than 1,300 people have submitted comments to the council’s planning portal – a level described as “unprecedented”.
Andy Jones, who sits on Frome Town Council, said allowing excessive numbers of homes to be built on the Saxonvale site would be detrimental to the long-term fortunes of the town centre.
He said: “Saxonvale is the only brownfield site of any significance remaining in the centre our town – and as such, it’s the last and final chance we have to provide employment space where it belongs, in the heart of Frome, to serve the needs of our growing population.”
“Mayday Saxonvale offers us a plan to provide a vibrant and thriving retail, hospitality and commercial extension of our town centre – one that will revitalise our local economy and help keep the potential of our young people – and their economic, social creative power – within our town and district.
“It will provide space for the small businesses nurtured within Frome to grow and to thrive.
“We cannot continue to build houses without also offering more employment opportunities – or we risk becoming a dormitory town, as people leave during the day to seek employment elsewhere, leaving our shopping streets empty and our cafés quiet.
“Frome wants Mayday Saxonvale – it’s the right plan for this site. It’s so refreshing and exciting to see a design that puts the needs of the community before the pockets of the developers.”
Nigel Harris from the Frome and District Chamber of Commerce added: “Frome desperately needs employment land within the town centre. You can build houses anywhere, but we only have one town centre, and this is our one chance to do something meaningful with it.
“Most businesses as they grow move out of town because they can’t find the right space and they take the jobs with them into Bath and west Wiltshire.
“This is far too important a piece of land to regard primarily as a piece of residential development. This offers doubles the employment land than can be expected from the Acorn plan.
“There are plenty of other places to build houses – we’ve got the Selwood Garden Community on the horizon, which could easily swamp the housing supply in Frome.”
The Selwood Garden Community plans could see more than 1,700 new homes being delivered between the A361 and the southern edge of Frome; however, a decision on these plans has been pushed back after National Highways raised concerns about the impact such a large number of new homes would have on the A36.
What did the planning board say?
Councillor John Clarke – whose Frome Market ward includes the site – spoke passionately in favour of the plans, calling on the board to “be bold” and go against its own planning policies.
Under the Local Plan Part II – which was ratified in December – the Saxonvale site is expected to deliver a minimum of 250 homes, along with any employment allocation.
Mr Clarke said: “This application provides an opportunity for you to support a development that has widespread support, which prioritises community value, not profit, which is sustainable and provides social and economic benefits.
“Even with the reduced number of homes, it will produce the same number of affordable homes as the Acorn scheme.
“We are achieving the necessary number of homes required for Frome. Mayday offers a better balance.”
Councillor Michael Dunk, who represents the same ward, added: “When I moved to Frome about 38 years ago, it was described as a black spot for employment.
“The town has the lowest ratio of jobs to economically active population of any of the major settlements in Mendip. This application provides the right balance between housing and employment space.”
Councillor Drew Gardner – who represents the neighbouring Frome College ward – said the site would enable small business owners like himself to remain in the town rather than having to relocate.
He said: “In the depths of covid, I’ve managed to establish a small tech start-up. We’ve now got three offices in town and I work with five young people who were unemployed.
“In a very short space of time, I’m going to have to make a pretty tough decision. Do I stay in the town which I love, where my son goes to school, or is it time to move because there isn’t the commercial space for businesses like mine in the town?
“We’re going into hard times – we’re going to see massive inflation, even greater than we’ve got at the moment. We need the jobs, we need the businesses in our town, not far away.”
Councillor Francis Hayden said he was broadly in favour of the plans, but questioned how necessary the educational element would be given the change of heart over the relocation of St. John’s School.
He said: “The idea of moving the primary school was inspired, but now it turns out they don’t want to move. Now we’ve got an education space which is just there – we haven’t demonstrated a need for it.
“Why would we sacrifice good housing space for the opportunity for someone to come in and set up a private, fee-paying school?”
Councillor Tom Killen (who leads the opposition Conservative group) said he was “not precious” about the Acorn scheme, despite being deputy leader of the council when it acquired the Saxonvale site.
He said: “This is a one-off opportunity and we really can’t put all that good, hard work to waste.
“Even though I was so attached to the acquisition of the site and the drawing up of the Acorn proposals when it was the only game really in play, Mayday Saxonvale has earned their opportunity to be at the table.”
After nearly two-and-a-half hours’ debate, the board voted to approve the plans by a margin of 12 votes to three.
What happens next?
Since both the Acorn and Mayday Saxonvale schemes now have planning permission, the situation is a little complicated.
Since the planning board’s decision represents a departure from its Local Plan Part II, the council by law has to formally advertise this to the public within the next three weeks.
The new Section 106 agreement between the council and Mayday Saxonvale will be negotiated and come back before the planning board for sign-off by December 14 at the latest (its last meeting before Christmas).
The group will also be looking to negotiate the purchase of the land from the council during this time.
The council’s asset management group is due to discuss the future of the Acorn S106 agreement – which still hasn’t been signed – when it meets in Shepton Mallet on August 24.
The details of the council’s current contract with Acorn have not been made public – so we don’t know what penalties (financial or otherwise) the council would face if it tried to exit its agreement with Acorn to allow the Mayday scheme to proceed.
Furthermore, there is the issue of the remaining Homes England funding, provided to clear the site, which must be spent in its entirely by March 31, 2023.
Finally, the council will have to consider the outcome of a bid to the government’s levelling up fund, which could help with the delivery of the ‘western warehouse’. This is expected to be known in the autumn.
In short, there are still a lot of hoops to jump through before Mayday Saxonvale can start putting spades in the ground – but with the board’s backing, they are now in a much stronger position.
