Group starts drive to bring in superstore

In order to deal with the "cuckoo in the nest" behaviour of some of the big names the following is reported
Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs have drafted amendments to the Localism Bill designed to safeguard the character of neighbourhood shopping streets by requiring Councils to put in place a retail-diversity scheme based on the wishes of the local community. Similar proposals by the Liberal Democrats will also seek to tilt the balance of power back towards local authorities, which are often unable to oppose the arrival of a large supermarket

This is how one big corporation behaved

XXX denies its own representatives' claims on Shrewsbury expansion plan
XXX has rejected figures produced by its own consultants - DPP Planning- that plans to extend its store in Shrewsbury by a third would result in £2.7 million trade being lost from the town centre each year. XXX has said it does not accept the figure provided by its representatives to town councillors at a meeting last month.

reader can guess if they will the identity of XXX

http://tinyurl.com/4454kjd

How Mendip Council sees Saxonvale

This is surprising since the other group Saxonvale Concern has much the same approach. It is not opposed to a supermarket that supplies mainly food and and also a reasonable number of shops spreading from Saxonvale back into the town so keeping the new development and the town centre as one integrated town.
We do need to watch out for is the supermarket which tries to absorb all the services of a town. Supermarkets have sold not just food clothes electrical goods radios TVs mobile toys phones dvds cd books insurance and recently one supermarket group has moved into hairdressing used cars and even double glazing. That does not leave much for the rest of the town.
Some big supermarkets also act like cuckoos in the nest. They start with a modest development but they add more and more space

So let's think about it carefully. What we don't need is a political fight over this. This question is too important for people to profile themselves and take up hard positions for short term political gain.

Frome needs us to think about this carefully. So far Frome has managed to go its own way and keep some character.
The Mendip District Council carried 3 large consultations about Saxonvale and so the public has been consulted. As a result MDC produced a good planning brief which attempts to get the best of both worlds. people should take a good look at this as it could really could develop Frome into a thriving town.

If the various groups are sincere in their wish to see our town do well they should get together and examine the current brief and talk honestly and sincerely about the issues putting their won ambitions to one side.

Whatever is done with Saxonvale it will have a big impact and people will remember what decisions were taken in their name.