Over 100 businesses in need of Frome town centre space – Mayday plan highlights crucial role in providing local jobs

COMMERCIAL space in Mayday Saxonvale’s community-led plan has now received expressions of interest from over 100 businesses and organisations who wish to open premises in Saxonvale. 

This need for commercial space in Frome’s town centre coincides with Acorn Property Group’s riverside park consultation. With the Mayday plan being well over 150% oversubscribed, it offers over 73,400 sqft more commercial space than the Acorn plan.

Andy Palmer, president of Frome Chamber of Commerce said, “Frome has always done really, really well in terms of incubating small start-up businesses until they get to a specific size. Once they get to the next stage, generally what happens is they have to move out and move to West Wiltshire, they take their jobs with them and obviously, that has a massive knock-on effect on the economy locally.

“Saxonvale is massively important. We’ve already lost a multitude of employment space over the last 20 years, and a number of the brownfield sites have been redeveloped. Effectively, you can build houses within certain parameters anywhere. What you can’t do is replace lost employment space in a town centre, which would just add to, not only the local economy but the local community as well.”

The Mayday Saxonvale plan offers over 118,400 sqft of employment space in Saxonvale; this includes a wide mix of different spaces for new and established businesses and organisations, including light industrial, retail, business incubation/start-up units and mixed-use live/work units. The plan fully extends the town centre and includes a community owned lido, cafe, and hotel all within the riverside park.

“Both the Mayday and Acorn plans offer a park, children’s play area and a footbridge to Willow Vale, however, the Acorn plan offers only 45,000 sqft of commercial space,” says a spokesperson for the Saxonvale plan.

Andrew Barr-Sim, managing director of The Vallis Group in Frome, who has registered for space in Saxonvale said, “We are about to raise money for a global expansion and we’re going to need more people. The two options we have are either to move to bespoke offices in the middle of Frome, or we will have to relocate to Bath, it really is as simple as that.

“Obviously, my strong preference would be to be in Frome, it’s where I come from and where we’ve built the business. To bring 40 young graduates into somewhere like Frome, in the centre, would be absolutely perfect. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’d have to go into Bath to get that size and scale to be able to expand.”

The derelict 12-acre site in the heart of Frome’s town centre was home to many large employers including Notts Industries and Beswicks, with over 400 people working on the site. Over nine large brownfield employment sites in Frome, including Singers, Coloroll, Cuprinol and Matbro have been lost to over 1,100 houses in the last 20 years.

In 2018 Mendip Council purchased the land and partnered with Acorn to deliver the regeneration of Saxonvale. Frome rejected the Acorn plan, including nearly 500 public objections and from all local consultees. In response to the “far from perfect plan” that was approved, the community of Frome created their own community-led and viable alternative, the Mayday Saxonvale Plan.

Organisers behind the Mayday Saxonvale plans say it aims to bring back the employment legacy, maximising commercial space in Frome’s town centre.

Paul Oster, Mayday Saxonvale director said, “While we have businesses knocking at our door in desperate need of commercial space, Acorn is consulting on the riverside park. It is hard to see their consultation as anything other than an exercise in community-washing. Consulting on a riverside park area, which both plans contain, deflects from the substance of a scheme which the community of Frome has rejected.

“Acorn has previously held a consultation on their plans for the entire Saxonvale site. Concerns raised by residents, the town council, the Civic Society, and the Chamber of Commerce have not been addressed and Acorn simply ploughing on with their high-density residential scheme.

“If Acorn were genuinely willing to engage with Frome’s community, they would be pausing their reserved matters application to allow for an open and transparent comparison between the two schemes. The fact remains that the Acorn plan does not provide enough commercial space and has a minimal expansion of Frome’s town centre. Their plan is still in breach of the council’s 30% requirement of desperately needed affordable homes.

“It continues to consist of four to five-storey apartments in a linear grid, which is extremely out of character in Frome and will cast huge shadows across the riverside park.”

Mayday Saxonvale director, Damon Moore, has a Judicial Review open against Acorn’s planning permission on the grounds of the misrepresentation of local planning policy, which directed that a required level of employment space be provided within the Saxonvale site in Frome’s town centre. A judge has ruled that the case will be heard by the High Court and is awaiting a hearing date.

Damon Moore said, “We had our first meeting with Somerset Council prior to them taking office on Saturday 1st April 2023. However, Somerset have now indicated that they cannot engage with Mayday further until the case concludes. We have offered a ‘formal pause’ in proceedings, to allow time for the council to assess which scheme to proceed with. We are awaiting their feedback and hopefully, we can continue positive engagement with Somerset Council and together, we can make Saxonvale work.”

For more information on the Mayday Saxonvale Plan and to watch the ‘Make Saxonvale Work’ documentary visit: maydaysaxonvale.co.uk.

Pictured: Supporters of the Mayday plans singing together on 1st May as part of the recent Mayday dawning event.