FROME Town Council has backed plans for ‘phase three’ of the Market Place redevelopment plans.
The proposed improvements to the Boyle Cross area includes additional planters, plants, seating and shade – additions to the town centre that councillors hope will make the area more of a tourist hotspot and a place for residents to meet.
Explaining the vision for the Boyle Cross area, cllr Nick Dove said at last month’s town council meeting, “If you were visiting Frome for the first time – driving through – you could easily miss what we have in our beautiful town. I feel the area is missing a hook to get people to stop.
“Boyle Cross is the centre of our town – it is used for events at Christmas, and the independent market. Since it was a car park, when I first moved to the area, it was been developed over the years, and it’s become a very sterile area, underused and not visitor or resident friendly.
“These improvements will hopefully make the area a place to drive through and think ‘wow I want to stop here’ – and this could help put money back into our economy. And it should become a popular place for residents to stop and meet friends.”
At the meeting, councillors unanimously backed a proposal to re-engage with Nicholas Pearson Associates who were commissioned in October 2018 to produce a landscaping proposal for the Boyle Cross area.
A council report says, “These plans included additional seating, planters, and trees outside the Coventry Building Society and on the corner of Market Place and Cork Street.”
Councillors agreed that the plans for ‘phase three’ should be progressed as far as possible within the constraints of the existing project budget for ‘phase two’ of the Market Place redevelopment, which started last month.
‘Phase two’ improvements include new bus shelters, improvements to bus stops, new pedestrian crossing, the replacement and widening of pavements, and new bollards to replace railings.
