Monday 13 December 2010

Information about the famous(ish) Planning Brief



Katy Duke, Frome's ex-Regeneration Officer, very kindly posted on the Open Thread about Mendip District Council's Planning Brief for the Saxonvale site, which was published in early 2005, after a great deal of work and consultation. 


She says: "Far from being flawed, the brief gives us a fantastic base from which to fight - it focusses on good design, pedestrian priority, built form appropriate for Frome & sensible street patterns. It doesn't support or propose a big foodstore."

You can download the whole thing (a very large pdf - be warned!) here.

Katy has also provided some background here, and reproduced some of the key text from the document here. There's also very useful stuff involving satellite views of the site, and an illustration of how much two possible sizes of supermarket would dominate the Saxonvale area.

As was proved at the Cheese & Grain meeting, any discussion of the site's prospects is bound to involve this document. At the next meeting - news of which will be in by the end of the week - we're aiming to have it explained, and to discuss how people feel about it.



1 comment:

  1. Its great that so much energy is being generated by this issue. But, with real respect to many who have posted here and elsewhere I would like to make some observations on this debate.:
    There is a clear gulf between those who have just entered the debate about the future of Saxonvale and those who have been involved for many years and understand how the story has unfolded and the ownership and the detailed planning issues involved.
    To assume the proposal for a supermarket here is either a new issue or that none of the inhabitants knew, cared or understood the impact of a supermarket is, in itself, to grossly misunderstand the situation.
    The proposals by SJI are just the latest in a string of proposals for this and other parts of the centre of town. They have been pilloried in the press by being open about it to the public. There have been other much more detailed development proposals recently that were kept away from the public eye by the Developer and Council under rules of 'commercial confidentiality'.
    Proposals for a Tesco on Saxonvale go back at least 10 years. We have successfully fought off these proposals because the Council, with uncharacteristic wisdom, appointed Gillespies to devise the Planning Brief and Codes. This protects the site from inappropriate development as it forms Supplementary Planning Guidance.
    It is The Only Game in Town.

    ReplyDelete