STOP SGC have stepped up their campaign against the Selwood Garden Community (SGC), which would bring 1,700 houses to the south of the town.
The group are encouraging the community to have their say about the plans, which have now been submitted to Mendip District Council, and have shared their thoughts on the proposed plans in a bid to help anyone wanting to object.
The plans have been criticised by the group for its potential to ‘rip up the countryside’, replacing it with ‘tarmac and roads’ – and the group has warned that they feel the plans are not a ‘masterplan’ for the site, highlighting that the site could be subject to piecemeal development, with land ‘sold off to the highest bidders’.
“It will change Frome forever, exacerbating many of the problems this town already faces,” say the campaigners,
The developer promises that amongst the plans for SGC site, there will be 510 affordable homes – 408 of which will be provided for social rent; a neighbourhood centre; a new primary school; employment land that will ‘create over 1,200 jobs’; and 30 hectares of parks.
Ripping up the countryside
“The land financiers behind this proposal talk a good talk,” say Stop SGC campaigners. “But from all the documentation we have seen in this proposal, they won’t walk the walk. This outline planning application is not a proposal for an actual garden community or to add something positive to Frome. It’s simply about ripping up the countryside and replacing it with tarmac and roads.
“The land that has been put forward for development will then be parcelled up and sold off to the highest bidders – the big housebuilders who already have a reputation for putting profit over people and planet.
Wild promises
“What is clear is that Land Value Alliances (LVA) and their associates will happily produce pretty drawings and reams of paper saying what the future ‘might’ look like. Yet they won’t be around to make sure it actually happens. They will not be held to account to keep their wild promises and there will be no legal duty for LVA and their associates to deliver them.
“As this application does not present any details of the layout, scale, appearance or landscaping of the development, how is it possible for local residents to believe what they say will happen will actually happen?
“This enormous southern expansion of Frome will result in a watered-down mish-mash of development, loosely based on their glossy presentation.
“They promise a local centre and affordable homes. Yet they won’t be building them.
“They say there will be no impact on air pollution. Yet their bizarre proposals for re-routing traffic through Frome will clog up our already congested roads.
“They suggest new green spaces will replace the miles of hedgerows, veteran trees and productive farmland. Yet they won’t be the ones responsible for ensuring there is a net biodiversity gain here. In other words, they will cut and run. Taking their profits off somewhere else, while taking away farmland and green spaces from the people of Frome.”
An outline planning application has been submitted to Mendip District Council, which is open for comments until 9th September – and to help people that want to object to the plans, Stop SGC has produced a step-by-step guide, complete with a series of documents to help someone frame their objection.
Profiteering
A spokesperson for Stop SGC said, “Planning applications are very inaccessible to the public, but Stop SGC are working hard to review the documents and share them widely. There are nearly 150 in total, with some documents being revised even after the application has been submitted.
“We will be regularly updating our website and anyone who wants to lodge an objection to this blatant profiteering can find out more at stopsgc.org/why-stop-sgc.
“Once the fields at Little Keyford are gone, they are gone forever.”
To view the plans, visit the Mendip District Council planning website and search with the reference 2021/1675/EOUT
