Cllr Ali Barclay and chair of Town Matters started the meeting by welcoming everyone and as there were no questions or comments, she quickly moved on to the first item of the agenda which was Frome Town Council’s formal response to the Saxonvale planning application.
Planning and Development Manager, Jane Llewelyn explained that although it’s positive that a comprehensive scheme aiming to deliver a range of uses has emerged, it’s recommended that Frome Town Council (FTC) objects to the application for a number of reasons. These were a lack of commercial space and therefore limited employment opportunities, the unclear amount of affordable housing and the traffic assessment under estimating the likely traffic congestion.
Suggestions for the planning application were that the pedestrian bridge to Willow Vale needs to be part of access arrangements at the outline stage, that the scheme is submitted to a Design Review Panel and that FTC meet with Acorn and Mendip District Council to discuss S106 agreement contributions. It was unanimously agreed by Cllrs and you can read the full report here.
Community Development Manager, Kate Hellard was next to give updates on her areas of work which focuses on enabling communities to support themselves. She started with the pilot project taking place in Trinity which over the last three months has seen street events, community junk gardening, lunches, litter picks and clean ups. Feedback has been extremely encouraging with residents feeling better connected, more able to talk to each other and confident to challenge anti-social behaviour if they see it happening in their neighbourhood. Find out more here.
It was then unanimously agreed to approve community grants totalling £7,200 to seven community projects covering sports, history and wellbeing. The successful groups were: SWEDA (Somerset and Wessex Eating Disorders Association), Frome Flyers Cycling Club, Nova Sports and Coaching, Black Swan Arts, Frome Falcons Powerchair Football Club, Shared Earth Learning and Frome Toy Library. Cllrs also agreed to ask the grants panel to review Multi Year Agreements. You can find out more here.
It was then time to review the results from a recent survey of local community organisations and charities. Results showed that FTC’s “personal approaches and tailored advice” have been extremely beneficial and it was agreed to continue to develop the support on offer, particularly focusing on engaging small, grassroots organisations and broadening the reach of support. Read more about the survey and the results here.
The meeting ended with a report on the People’s Budget Town Vote 2019. It was agreed to work with Public Square to further the town council’s approach to engaging local communities in decision making. Find the report here.
The details of everything mentioned above can be found at www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk and the next meeting is Town Matters on 7 August. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep updated on everything we’re up to.
