Protestors outside Frome town hall before Somerset council\u2019s meeting to decide the future of the Saxonvale development site. Photograph: Sam Frost\/The GuardianView image in fullscreenProtestors outside Frome town hall before Somerset council\u2019s meeting to decide the future of the Saxonvale development site. Photograph: Sam Frost\/The Guardian\u2018Devastating\u2019: council rejects Frome residents\u2019 bid for regeneration projectLocals raised \u00a31m for Mayday Saxonvale scheme involving homes and park but Somerset officials agreed deal with London-based real estate companyA bold bid by residents of a progressive town in the English West Country who raised almost \u00a31m to create what could have been the UK\u2019s largest community-led regeneration project is in tatters.More than 1,000 residents of Frome in Somerset had clubbed together with the aim of building homes, workspaces, a riverside park and a lido on a brownfield area in their town centre.But rather than selling the 5-hectare (12-acre) site to the community-led Mayday Saxonvale project, Somerset council has agreed a deal with a real estate investment company based in Soho, central London.The announcement of the preferred bidder\u2019s identity at a packed meeting in Frome town hall was greeted with shouts of \u201cwho?\u201d, \u201cshame on you\u201d and \u201cstitch-up\u201d. Some of those who had worked on the Mayday project for more than five years were in tears.View image in fullscreenThe Saxonvale brownfield site in Frome, Somerset.<\/p>\n
Photograph: Sam Frost\/The GuardianThe Liberal Democrat-led council said it hoped the prospective owners would work with Frome residents but admitted the sale was unconditional.Some local people fear that rather than providing the sort of mixed development with a generous proportion of affordable homes they envisaged, the prospective owners will be free to build expensive riverside houses and lucrative accommodation for elderly people.\u201cIt\u2019s devastating news,\u201d said Sara Butler, a Frome town councillor. \u201cSo many people have worked so hard on trying to ensure this site is developed with the best interests of Frome. It\u2019s been a town-wide mission and this is a slap in the face.\u201dView image in fullscreenSome of those who had worked on the Mayday project were in tears when the successful bidder was announced. Photograph: Sam Frost\/The GuardianFrome is famed for its independent, renegade spirit and the leader of the town council, Fiona Barrows, said the idea of the Mayday plan had been to create homes that local people could afford and places where they could work.She said the town council would work with the prospective owners but criticised the transparency of the process. \u201cSaxonvale is simply too important to Frome to be treated as an ordinary land disposal,\u201d she said.Susie Jenkins Temple, who had got together with friends to put money up for the Mayday project, said it had been an extraordinary effort. \u201cAcross Frome, people reached into their own pockets because they believe this place matters,\u201d she said.Many local people suspect Somerset council\u2019s executive had decided who to sell the site to before it met at Frome town hall on Wednesday to hear last-minute appeals from the townsfolk.The way the identity of the successful bidder was revealed added to residents\u2019 suspicions that the meeting was little more than a PR exercise.View image in fullscreenCouncillors vote on the future of the Saxonvale development site. Photograph: Sam Frost\/The GuardianWithin two minutes of Somerset council announcing the identity of the preferred bidder \u2013 Newcore Capital \u2013 at the end of an impassioned meeting, it had issued a full press release on the deal.<\/p>\n
Less than 15 minutes later, Newcore released its own press release.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionPaul Oster, an executive director of Mayday Saxonvale community benefit society, said the chance to create the UK\u2019s largest community-led regeneration project had been lost.The council argued it could not be sure Mayday had the full funds for the project. However, as well as the money invested by local people, Mayday had secured \u00a31.2m from the social impact fund Resonance \u2013 the largest investment it had offered. Mayday said it had other investors interested. It is thought the agreed sale price for land was about \u00a33m.Jon Rolls, the head of developing communities at Resonance, said that without local ownership there was a \u201creal danger\u201d that Saxonvale would become another regeneration scheme done to a community, rather than by and with that community.View image in fullscreenProtesters outside Frome town hall \u2013 some had been working on the Mayday bid for five years.<\/p>\n
Photograph: Sam Frost\/The GuardianHe said: \u201cThe people of Frome haven\u2019t simply expressed an opinion. They organised behind this vision and invested their own money.\u201dFrome residents win five-year battle for community-led housing projectRead moreOther Newcore projects include a 3.2-hectare (8-acre) site in east London, where the plan is to build a new supermarket, community health centre and childcare facilities alongside 1,047 new homes, and a care home and retirement living apartments on a brownfield site in Cambridge.In its statement, Newcore said it was committed to working closely with the people of Frome \u201cto understand local aspirations, discuss the opportunities and constraints and work collaboratively to develop the plans in partnership with the community\u201d.It added: \u201cEmerging proposals are likely to include a range of new homes, intergenerational accommodation, community facilities including space for local artists, open space and new car parking.\u201dExplore more on these topicsRegenerationCommunitiesSomersetReal estateLiberal DemocratsnewsShareReuse this content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Protestors outside Frome town hall before Somerset council\u2019s meeting to decide the future of the Saxonvale development site. Photograph: Sam Frost\/The GuardianView image in fullscreenProtestors outside Frome town hall before Somerset council\u2019s meeting to decide\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}