Sunday's event in the park - a reminder

Sorry this is a bit late...

The organisers of the recent Saxonvale meetings held in the Cheese and Grain are encouraging people to join them this Sunday, 27^th February, in Victoria Park.  Using people and materials available, the group will map out the true scale of the development planned for the town’s centre – 40,000 square feet.

The ‘HOW BIG?’ demonstration will take place from 3pm in Frome’s Victoria Park at 3pm on Sunday 27^th February.  The group will meet by the bandstand,  and we encourage everyone to join in, regardless of their views about the redevelopment of Saxonvale.

Together with all of those who turn up and want to get involved, the organisers plan to show what 40,000 square foot (4,000 square metres) looks like on the ground.

Following the recent public meetings and online debates, a consensus is developing that a smaller supermarket, as part of a mixed housing, employment and retail development would fit best with the existing Mendip District Council Development Brief for Saxonvale.

For updates and more information on the plans for redevelopment site in the centre of Frome, visit saxonvalesupermarket.blogspot.com, join the ‘No more big supermarkets in Frome’ group on Facebook, or follow @Saxonvale on Twitter.

Meeting report from the Somerset standard

 (from the Standard, 27.1.2011 - read it here)

Residents give their views on redevelopment of Saxonvale

A ten-pin bowling complex, a conference centre, a hotel and new leisure facilities for teenagers were some of the suggestions that people made for what they want at Saxonvale following a public meeting last week.

More than 300 people packed into the Cheese and Grain for the meeting on Wednesday last week to hear Mendip District Council planning officers John Meacher and Les Kimberley explain what the existing planning brief for the mainly disused site consisted of.

The meeting was organised by a group of Frome people whose aim is to make sure that everyone in the town gets a say on what goes on the site.

London-based property agent St James Investment's has taken an acquired option on the Notts Industries site and plans to build a 40,000sqm supermarket with a further 40,000sqm of retail.

Developers Terramond have outline planning permission for the site.

Mr Kimberley explained that the planning brief had been put together in 2005 and that it comprised of all the elements needed to make it a successful regeneration of the area.

He said the purpose of the planning brief was to improve efficiency of the planning process and improve the quality of the development.

It includes criteria such as a need for open spaces and links to the town centre and he explained that what is critical in the brief is the highways element, as there are serious issues with access.

The 29-acre site is split into several areas of ownership by different organisations, including Notts Industries, which owns the largest chunk, Mendip District Council, Terramond Property Agents, based in Bristol, and two private owners.

The Regional Development Agency owned a proportion of the site until recently, but it is believed it has now been sold.

Mr Meacher said that in the planning brief the plan for the site is a mixture of housing, retail and open spaces and that there was no way to stipulate how much of that could be used as a supermarket.

The audience was invited to move into smaller groups and discuss what they wanted on the site and the way forward.

The main feedback given was that people did not wish to see a large supermarket, but there was a desire to have something small or medium-sized.

Other opinions included an ice rink, a ten-pin bowling complex, open spaces, a multi-purpose market square in which markets could be held, and one of the main demands was that it had to be linked to the existing town centre.

Concerns raised included whether St James Investments would carry out a consultation with residents.

One question asked in the workshops was whether Mendip could buy any of the land but Mr Meacher said that was an option in theory but highly unlikely due to the current spending cuts put forward by the Government.

Coordinator Luke Wilde said he was delighted with the turnout and thanked those who attended. He added that another meeting was being planned for the near future.

Another brilliant meeting

Last night's meeting at the Cheese & Grain was notable for many reasons. The turnout was as good as on December 1st, proving that our campaign has real momentum. There was a remarkable level of consensus about what people would accept/like to see on the Saxonvale site, characterised by realism about what the town-centre probably needs, coupled with solid opposition to a supermarket of the size being proposed, and a drive to see improvements in the quality of Frome's public spaces. A full report will follow shortly - for now, thanks for coming!

Poster for Wednesday's meeting

... which, just to illustrate that this runs wider than Tesco, suggests another one of the Big 4.

Panorama on iPlayer

It's here. Happy Christmas!

BBC coverage, and Panorama tonight

There's loads of material about supermarket expansion on the BBC News website today. It coincides with tonight's Panorama, titled Supermarkets: What Price Cheap Food, on BBC1 tonight at 9pm (an iPlayer link will follow). Within all the coverage, there's a news story about what's happening in Frome here. It begins: "People in Frome who do not want a Tesco store in the town are planning to take on the supermarket giant. The news comes as new BBC research shows six new supermarkets have opened in Somerset in the last two years and four more applications are pending..."

And another thing - ethics, tax and supermarkets

The gathering consensus that Mendip District Council's Development Brief appears to be a useful yardstick against which to assess planning proposals for this site suggests that some sort of ‘food store’ is likely to be part of any viable package. Can the community turn the ConDem’s ‘Localism’ agenda to its advantage, perhaps? Rather than having a particular supermarket operator imposed upon us by developers could we take a proactive role in choosing the firm that best fits with our aspirations for Frome?

While any mixed community is going to have widely divergent priorities and preferances, the 2 most frequently cited reasons for locating a supermarket at Saxonvale have been proximity to the town centre (accessibility) and the enticement it allegedly provides to draw in other retailers to set up here. Neither of these criteria favour any particular supermarket operator. How then, in an ideal world, would we decide?

In a town with a marked interest in fair trade, local sourcing, sutainability and transition to a post peak oil economy it could be argued that only the most ethical of supermarkets should be considered as being suitable for Saxonvale. A good place to start thinking about this is the Ethical Consumer website’s “Ethical buyer’s guide to supermarkets” which gives the following hierarchy (best to worst): Waitrose, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Morrisons, Somerfield, Tesco, Asda…

While there are many criteria against which the ethical performance of supermarkets are measured, the Ethical Consumer website is surprisingly quiet on the subject of tax avoidance. Guess who said this: “The supermarkets don’t just have the planning system working in their favour, they’ve also got the tax man eating out of the palm of their hands. They say that ‘every little helps’, but then set up hugely complex tax avoidance schemes… Just look at what Tesco, our biggest retailer, is able to do… It may be legal, but it’s wrong.” (Nick Clegg, speech, 12.11.08)  One explanation for the relative silence on this subject may be the MacDonalds-like aggression with which certain supermarkets pursue allegations, witness The Guardian’s legal battle with Tesco in 2008.

The UK Uncut campaign seeks to contrast the current government’s enthusiasm for cutting public services with their disinclination to act on the massive tax avoidance of large corporations. If you haven’t already tuned into this, do start to take note. It can only be a matter of time before the campaign turns its attention from Topshop, HSBC, Boots and Vodaphone to multinational supermarkets. UK Uncut Campaigners argue that were these corporations to pay their fair share of tax on the astronomical profits that they make there would be much less need to make cuts. Tax Research UK estimates that up to £120bn is lost to the treasury through tax avoidance (Observer, 19.12.10 “Big companies fall silent as vocal protestors win propaganda war”).