FROME DESERVES
BETTER
BIG TRANSPORT. BAD TRAFFIC. HUGE PROBLEMS.
Fromes roads are already overstretched. Portway, Christchurch
Street East and many other routes serving the town centre are
already prone to congestion. Any number of incidents e.g. the
occasional flooding in the Wallbridge area, regularly make
things worse. The imminent extension of Asda and the arrival of
the Steiner School on Park Road will
add to the complications.
Building a huge retail park at Saxonvale while leav-ing Fromes
roads largely as they are will cause huge problems, both as any
development is being built, and when it opens. The headteacher of
St Johns First School on Christchurch Street East has formal-ly
objected to the plans, citing health and safety risks to the 300
children who attend this school,
along with their families.
To make things worse, Frontier say they want to use Vicarage
Street for night deliveries to their retail park. As anyone who
uses this historic street will know, it is already blighted by
completely unsuitable heavy traffic. What is now being proposed
looks like madness.
In addition, there are serious concerns about how the proposed
retail park will be accessed from the town centre. As happens
at the moment, the main route between Saxonvale and Market Place
will still be along the narrow and dangerous pavement
on King Street. Entering the retail park from this direction
will then involve a double road crossing.
The nearest bus stop to the retail park will be around
300 metres away and the principal pedestrian route from
the store foyer to the town centre will be via a flight of
steps, which does not comply with disability rules. The needs of
cyclists have not been taken seriously. All told,
this is a plan which has focused almost exclusively on cars,
while paying precious little attention to what hugely increased
traffic will do to Frome.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
A date for Mendip District Councils planning hearing has yet to
be set, but is expected soon. If you are con-cerned about Frontiers
plans you can:
1. Contact your local Mendip District Councillor. A full list of
Frome representatives is at www.frome-tc.gov.uk/
mendip-districtcouncillors
2. Write to David Heath MP, who represents Somerton
and Frome at [email protected]
3. Sign up for regular newsletters and meeting news at
wwww.keepfromelocal.org.uk [email protected]
facebook.com/groups/saxonvale twitter.com/KeepFromeLocal
The future of our town and the case against another
retai l park
Keep Frome Local is a pro-town centre group, part of a growing
UK-wide Town Centre Movement, re-adopted in 2009. We are not an
anti-supermarket group, nor opposed to Saxonvales
redevelopment.
We support the vision for Saxonvale outlined in Mendip District
Councils Planning Brief for the site. We are a broad, demo-cratic
organisation, growing out of consultation and discussion involving
hundreds of Frome residents.
We believe that Saxonvale should be redeveloped in a way that
enhances the town centre and increases Fromes econom-ic resilience.
The current Frontier plan with a 52,000 square foot superstore at
its centre, heavy dependence on car use and a lack of integration
with the existing town centre fails to achieve this.
Children crossing Vicarage Street going to St Johns School,
08:53 AM.
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THERES NO PLACE LIKE FROME
Britains cities, towns, and villages are changing in all kinds
of ways. The rise of online shopping and the recent recession have
had
a dramatic effect on high streets. National retail chains, once
hugely profitable, have gone bust. If town centres are to survive
and
prosper, they will have to embrace new thinking and open
themselves up to much more than shopping.
Frome is doing better than most places of a similar size. We are
fortunate that our shop vacancy rates are low. Our town centre
is
full of successful independent businesses. Events such as the
Frome Independent ( previously known as the Super Market ) have
brought new innovations to the towns streets. We also have a
town council who are looking to the future and working on all
kinds
of new ideas that will benefit the whole of our community.
FROME FACES A GRAVE THREAT
The Milton Keynes-based developers Frontier Estates have applied
for planning permission to build a huge new retail park on the
Saxonvale site, which sits at the edge of the existing town
centre.
Their proposals are dominated by a 52,000 square foot
supermarket and a huge car park, along with over 15 new retail
units. They have no plans to seriously change Fromes traffic
system, nor convincingly in-tegrate their retail park with the
town. Their proposals will leave large swathes of the Saxonvale
site untouched, and reduce the chances of it ever being developed.
Viewed from many areas of Frome, their devel-opment will be an ugly
eyesore.
Worse still, they want it to be dominated by retail, at exactly
the point that the future of such busi-nesses looks more uncertain
than ever.
THE BIG PICTURE -WHY RETAIL NO LONGER SELLS
The first weeks of 2014 saw headlines about the dire performance
of such chains as M&S, Tesco and Morrisons. The last six
years
have seen no end of high street chains either disappear, or
enter administration. There are credible predictions that up to 40%
of
British shops will have to close over the next five years, as
people spend more and more online. So why flood Frome with more
retail chains?
Town centres are faced with two key lessons.
First, independent, locally-owned businesses tend to be more
re-silient than big retail chains. In 2012, the town-centres expert
and
fellow of the New Economics Foundation Andrew Simms came to
Frome to speak at a conference about the future of towns.
The big chains tend to be fairweather friends when the going
gets rough, he says. As soon as one of their outlying stores stops
hitting their targets, they shut up shop and get out. Local
independent stores tend to hang in more because they have a
much
greater investment in the local community. Fromes town centre is
proof of this. Our huge range of independent shops is one of
the reason we have weathered the downturn so well.
The second big lesson for towns is about the need to include
much more than retail in any new developments. If shopping is to
form a much smaller part of what people expect from town centres,
places will only prosper if they devote more space to residential
uses, new kinds of industry and business, and community
facilities.
People in Frome realised this earlier than most. In 2005, Mendip
District Council worked with the town on the Development Brief for
Saxonvale (last formally re-adopted in 2009), which set out a
vision of a mixed use, high density scheme, including housing,
retail accommodation, em-ployment and open spaces which would be a
seamless extension to Frome town centre.
What Frontier Estates are proposing has nothing to do with this.
They want to build an old-fash-ioned, car-centric retail park, cut
off from the rest of the town, which would do unimaginable damage
to Frome.
In the short term, their plans could have a dire effect on the
existing
town centre, similar to what the huge Townsend retail park has
done
to Shepton Mallet. Frontier claim their plans would create new
employment: given that the towns spending power is not likely
to
appreciably increase, they would probably cause job losses
elsewhere in the Frome area, and threaten existing businesses.
Over
time, the retail chains they had attracted to their development
would be likely to come up against peoples changed shopping
hab-its, and hit hard times themselves. The eventual result would
be the annihilation of our town centre, to absolutely nobodys
benefit.
Frontiers plans are short-sighted, and dangerous. This is why
their proposals are opposed by a huge range of local people and
organisations, including Frome Town Council, the towns Chamber of
Commerce, and Frome Civic Society. They all know that
Frome deserves better.
BIG RETAIL CHAINS THAT HAVE EITHER DISAPPEARED OR GONE INTO
ADMINISTRATION SINCE 2007
JJB SportsClinton cardsPeacocksBlacksBarratts shoesJane
NormanHMVGameLa SenzaPast TimesJessopsFocus
DIYCometMFIThreshersDreamsJulian GravesHawkins Bazaar
While the Town Council wants to see Saxon-vale developed, it
doesnt want to see devel-opment at any price. The quality of the
outline scheme just didnt live up to expectationsThe Council felt
that the decision to recom-mend refusal of the Frontier application
was the right thing to do. They hope that Mendip will take this
objection seriously given the level of community engagement, and
the at-tention to detail by officers in their report to
Councillors.
Paul Wynne, Town Clerk, Frome Town Council
Saxonvale is the last site which can contribute to the
well-being of Frome town centre. It has great positive potential if
done right. It has great potential to dam-age the town if done
wrong. This is not the right scheme.
Frome Chamber of Commerce
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