FROME Chamber of Commerce has hit back at critics of the town centre who claim the town needs the Saxonvale development to draw more people into the town.
Neil Howlett from Frome Chamber of Commerce has highlighted the positive aspect of Frome and revealed that statistics show the town is actually well used.
He said, “Frome is a fantastic place and has got so much to offer and I don’t like to see people knocking it.
“Some people don’t seem to notice what Frome does have – which is a lot more than most towns our size. There are things that could be improved and we should all work together to do that.”
In a letter to Frome Times, printed in full on page 20, Neil says, “I don’t approve of people kicking my town without good reason,” and he outlines a series of facts about Frome from the Mendip Town Centres Study by Roger Tym & Partners prepared for Mendip District Council in October 2010, which is the most up to date authoritative data.
It shows that 33% of people visited the town centre for convenience (food) shopping at least once a month and only 17% never did; the highest and lowest figures in Mendip while 45% of people visited the town centre at least once a month for comparison (clothes and other goods) shopping and only 20% never did; the highest and lowest in Mendip apart from Street. Frome also had the highest frequency of visits in the evenings and the lowest proposition who never visited in the evening.
“Frome isn’t perfect and we should be honest about its faults, but it doesn’t help to have people knocking it when the figures show the opposite.”
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