The Saxonvale outline planning application will be considered by Mendip District Council’s planning board next week and local district councillors are warning of the consequences of the impending decision.
In a statement issued by cllr Michael Dunk and supported by cllr John Clarke, who are both district councillors representing Frome’s Market Ward, cllr Dunk says, “Whatever the decision, it will be important for the regeneration of Frome Town centre.
“ As a district councillor for Market Ward, it is my job to represent the best interests of the residents in my ward and I have been looking at what Mendip council and developers, Acorn, will offer with their development of Saxonvale; as with most things, there are some benefits and some missed chances.
“I want to look at the figures first to set the scene: the 11.36 acres of land was not cheap, the cost including the bit bought from Frome Town Council was £8,170,000, or £719,190 per acre. This high purchase cost will have dictated what could ‘profitably’ be delivered by any developer seeking to make money. Mendip have incurred other costs but I am waiting to hear if some may be re-imbursed by Acorn.
“The Viability Assessment (VA) submitted by Acorn supports delivering only 21% Affordable Housing (AH) or 63 of the 300 housing units. This commitment values the land at £5,462,539 (or £480,857 per acre), clearly much less than the price paid by Mendip and even less than Acorn’s own benchmark valuation figure of £6million. The resulting projected profit at 21% AH is a paltry £15,335,279 (based on a standard 20% profit margin). I should mention that the Acorn VA is, in turn, being independently assessed on behalf of Mendip planning dept. to see if it actually stacks up. I have yet to have sight of this report.
“There has been a lot of speculation about profits from Mendip ending up with a balance sheet in the red to Acorn, making a fat profit. I have good reason to predict that both Acorn and Mendip will profit from the enterprise and that, had Covid-19 not intervened, Mendip could have made a profit of between £7 – 9million and perhaps even more. However, with the present circumstances, the possibility of reduced demand for commercial space, and to some extent a dip in housing prices, might reduce my estimate to £5 – 7million.
“Acorn are obliged to offer some contribution towards the community (known as Section 106 money) and their VA puts this at £1.9million. Some will go towards improving already overloaded road junctions and a bridge over the river to join with Willow Vale.
“So, what do I think of what is on offer? With the information supplied at this outline stage, I think the development is perhaps a bit too dense overall and too high in places. Another developer may have come up with a scheme that is more imaginative, but maybe it will start to look more interesting when Acorn work up the design details for the next ‘Reserved Matters’ stage of the application.
“I think where I am most critical is the provision of AH, all agree that the need for social housing has never been more pressing so we should ideally have the 30% AH that Mendip as a Planning Authority would consider as compliant.
“I have been, along with cllr John Clarke, asking for more information about how much Mendip will make from this project so that we can have a discussion about increasing the numbers of affordable homes. This information has consistently been denied to us. It is our opinion that the provision of AH could be increased if Mendip had the political will to do so and were prepared to accept a lower profit to facilitate it.
“Many will argue that we will need more commercial space on the site and I would normally agree with this however, post-Covid demand for commercial space will probably change to reflect different working environments and it’s not clear yet if more work space would be needed. I’m glad to see that there is some provision of live/work style property and I would welcome more of that; as someone who has worked from a studio attached to my house, I am well aware of the benefits of working from home.
“Whatever ends up being built it should be future proofed in many ways, fit for future generations and ages and fit for a climate change future with the highest possible insulation standards and lowest energy demand. If Acorn do it properly there will be no need for gas boilers (or a gas connection at all), buildings will be heated using air or ground source heat pumps and supplemented with solar panels fitted as standard wherever possible. We can only dream.”
