Press release / Kevin McCloud advises Frome anti supermarket campaign
Presenter of Channel 4’s Grand Designs, sustainable housing developer and Somerset resident Kevin McCloud has voiced his support for the campaign against another large supermarket in Frome.
Speaking at the public meeting held last Thursday in the town, he said that Mendip District Council’s existing Development Brief reinforces the community group’s argument.
At a packed public meeting last Thursday held in Rook Lane Chapel, McCloud enthused about the brief, first published in 2005.
“It’s really, really good,” he said. “A fantastic document: really, really thorough, and it’s very sensitively considered.
“Speaking as a developer, it’s very rare to find an agency or local authority actually paying so much intelligence to what happens to a site. What’s really interesting is that it sets out a series of objectives, which are extremely forward-thinking. And they are almost identical to the objectives that local people, quite independently, talked about at the second public meeting organised by this group.
“It talks about very high quality design with traditional materials, which reflects the vocabulary of buildings in Frome. You very rarely see that kind of stuff in documents from local authorities.”
“This is an interesting and useful tool in challenging any moves on the site,” he added.
“In any war, I’d use it as your suit of armour.”
The development planned by St James Investments on the Saxonvale area of Frome includes a 40,000 square feet supermarket, plus a further 40,000 square feet of retail space and 500 car parking spaces. The Tesco store in Shepton Mallet is of a similar scale to this plan.
McCloud has also contributed an introduction to the “Saxonvale Manifesto”, launched by the campaign group at the meeting last week. The manifesto is available from Frome library and all good local coffee shops.
The manifesto combines public feedback from previous meetings held at the Cheese and Grain with thoughts and views shared in local press, social media and email correspondence.
It explains that the Council’s Development brief offers the hope of “a seamless extension to Frome town centre” which would “allow the centre to grow, diversify and compete with out of town shopping and other centres.”
The brief describes “a mixed use, high density scheme, including housing, retail accommodation, employment and open spaces”, where “the car does not dominate.” There would be “focal streets” and “new urban squares”.
The activities happening within a new development would include “retail, restaurant, craft, office and gallery uses.”
Supporting sketches, maps and plans suggested the possibility of a development that would be in harmony with Frome’s existing atmosphere and culture, with an emphasis on public space.
Perhaps most importantly, say the campaigners, the development brief does not include any large supermarket development of the kind currently proposed by developers.
McCloud also disputed any suggestion that the current economic climate made the development brief untenable. “That’s rubbish,” he said.