Summary

This website shows the proposed planning application for this vital town centre site in Frome. Online application is here.

The application is for an OUTLINE planning application for MEANS OF ACCESS only, this means that all issues about LAYOUT, SCALE, APPEARANCE & LANDSCAPING are ‘reserved’ for discussion at a later date. Means of Access covers “accessibility for all routes to and within the site, as well as the way they link up to other roads and pathways outside the site“, more info at the planning portal.

What is wrong with the application? (click on links for more info.);

• Links to the town centre are very poor – level problems, steps, a new (double) road to cross, no clear route across the lower public space – blocked by cars & buildings. Look what happened to Shepton Mallet. Connectivity with the town centre is completely unresolved & across PRIVATE land.
• The Merchants Barton car park is to be closed and replaced with parking under the store. The main route out is through the lobby of the store, which is unlikely to be open 24 hours a day. The riverside car park has no obvious pedestrian route to the town.
• A great deal of trade would be lost by the existing town businesses, as shown in the applicants own figures.
• Bus stops in Market Place are too far from the store to be used well – 290m away and down steps or up a steep slope, across roads, down narrow crowded footpaths (or through Iceland). Shopping trolley use would be impossible. Sainsbury’s would still be the foodstore of choice if you travel by bus.
• A new double-roundabout is proposed at the top of Bath Street. Weekday peak queues at 4.30pm are predicted to be at least 77 vehicles long by 2025 – all the way down Bath Street & through Market Place. This would cause traffic & business chaos.
• Traffic in Christchurch Street East will be severely congested, yet the transport assessment makes capacity assumptions which are dubious. Junction modelling appears to be flawed. Peak flows do not seem appropriate to Frome but based on ‘typical’ flows. Figures suggest that 24% will shop in the Store on foot & 5% by bus (would they?).
• Serious encroachment on the river environment, which is supposed to be retained as a riverside park and key cycle route. The majority of trees (around 20) protected by a Tree Preservation Order are lost, though the Planning Statement says the opposite is true.
• Levels around the site create steep routes & have barriers such as steps & a retaining wall / fence to the riverside. The levels to the south of the store are completely unresolved, where a pedestrian & cycle route is essential for connectivity.
• Noise impact is so great that a high barrier is proposed to protect Willow Vale & Rivers Reach residents, further ruining the environment of the river corridor, and it proposed that night deliveries travel down Vicarage Street (even though it doesn’t connect with the Superstore).
• Noise impact is so great that sites adjacent to the Superstore delivery yard in the heart of the site, currently allocated for housing, would be unsuitable for this use, reducing values considerably.
• No decent sized public space is provided, the new town square is a storey below the Silk Mill with a blank side & only 21m x 34m in size. The riverside public space is similarly poor.
• There are no residences above the shops so no overlooking of public spaces. This shopping centre would be dangerous in the evening and could be closed at night. There are no serious signs of buildings & places designed to improve the night-time economy and vitality of the town.
• The store is so big it would take considerable non-food trade from other town centre shops.
• The store is so big it has been put up on legs to create enough parking spaces. This is not how Frome streets work and is contrary to the site brief. The brief had a high level of local involvement to identify what was right for Frome.
• The drawings are misleading & inaccurate.

Analysis of lower part of site next to river