- 02/02/2024
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00 Greetings once again people of Somerset. It's Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter,
00:07 and you join me in Froome, specifically on Sandys Hill Lane, near the town's McDonald's
00:13 restaurant as breakfast is just coming to an end. Traffic is building up nicely through
00:17 the drive-thru, so that's why I'm having to shout. But I'm not here for a burger or anything
00:22 along those lines. I am here to talk about housing development at the southern edge of
00:27 Froome. I'm standing in front of the Kiefford Meadows housing development, which is going
00:31 to be delivering nearly 200 homes either side of Sandys Hill Lane, where we are at the moment.
00:36 And for the next half hour or so, what we're going to do is we're going to head down little
00:41 Sandys Hill Lane in front of us there. We're going to walk through the Kiefford area of
00:45 the town, looking at all the different sites that will be turned into housing in the coming
00:50 years and showing you the dramatic transformation of the landscape, which is currently working
00:56 agricultural fields. We're going to end up near the old print work site off Adelwell
01:01 Lane, probably in around half an hour's time, and near the former Cuperinol factory. And
01:06 I will be guiding you through each of the sites as we explore them. As usual with these
01:10 Facebook Lives, please drop any comments that you have in the feed and I'll get to as many
01:16 of them live as I can. And those that I don't get round to, we will respond to retrospectively.
01:21 So let's start at the start of our journey, which is a very good place to start, at Kiefford
01:25 Meadows. Now, Outline Planning Commission was granted back in 2021, I believe, for 235
01:33 homes and commercial space on either side of Sandys Hill Lane. You can see we're right
01:37 on the edge of the Marston Business Park, not just the McDonald's, we've got the KFC,
01:42 the Greggs, the large Sainsbury's just over the way there. And this new development is
01:47 intended to straddle either side of Sandys Hill Lane via a new purpose built junction,
01:53 with the commercial space being close to the existing industrial and retail units, and
01:58 then the homes backing away to the east on either side. Now, when Cura bought the site
02:03 after Outline Planning Commission was secured, the number of homes was reduced down to 198.
02:08 Cura being, of course, a housing association, they were very keen on trying to get more
02:13 green space in the site, offering more affordable homes within the area, it's 30% affordable
02:17 housing. And you can see construction on those new homes is progressing very well. What we
02:22 don't have at the moment is an idea of when the commercial units will come on stream.
02:29 Construction on this development started back in January, and we expect the first homes
02:33 to start filling up in the next phase in the run up to Christmas. So now what we're going
02:38 to do is we're going to leave McDonald's behind, and the Kiefford Meadow site, excuse me for
02:44 panning a little too quickly, and we're going to head down the narrow and tranquil Sandys
02:49 Hill Lane. And I hope this will start to reinforce the kind of long running point that I'll be
02:55 making throughout this video, which is, it's very easy to go straight from a busy, built
03:01 up area full of roaring cars and extractor fans, and then all of a sudden walk down a
03:06 lane like this and feel like you're in the distant countryside. Obviously, I'm going
03:09 to have to have my wits about me throughout this stream because we are going to be walking
03:13 through sites that have no pavements at all. I'm not expecting these lanes to be too busy
03:18 at the moment. I mean, we are nearing to 11 o'clock on a Saturday, we're not having to
03:23 deal with school time or peak time rush hour traffic. But you will see gradually as we
03:29 go from one site to the other, how much the landscape is already changing. And I'll leave
03:34 it up to you to decide whether it's for better or for worse. As ever, I've got my other phone
03:40 just in front of me to ensure that I don't get lost and waste your time in the process.
03:45 And we just passed along this section of Sandys Hill Lane and you can see where the site crosses
03:53 over. So that is the southern section of Kiefford Meadows, where new housing is already being
03:59 delivered. And then the access road cuts across into the northern section of the site, wrapping
04:05 around the existing back of the retail park and the Kiefford Farmhouse, which you can
04:10 just see in the background there. And you can see the beginnings of a wide pavement,
04:14 which hopefully will have a cycle route on it. Now, one of the reasons why so much housing
04:21 is being allocated to the southern edge of Froome lies largely in decisions that were
04:26 made a number of years ago surrounding the Mendip Local Plan. There have been two local
04:32 plans put forward before Mendip District Council was abolished, one back in 2014, which set
04:37 out some initial sites in and around the town. And more recently in December 2021, the Local
04:43 Plan Part 2, which allocated a number of additional housing sites, including the Kiefford Meadows
04:49 site that we are just passing now, and three parcels of land in the Kiefford area, all
04:56 of which have now got planning permission. And essentially, we're going to follow Sandys
05:01 Hill Lane down through the little Kiefford area. We'll have to slightly double back on
05:06 ourselves, but I will walk you through onto the B309 to the mount to give you an idea
05:13 of how these sites will all integrate. And again, you can see, I've tried to time this
05:19 well in terms of the weather. We've had a lot of rain overnight. There's still a little
05:23 bit of surface water around. It's not Wellington Boot territory this time because I'm sticking
05:27 to the tarmac roads, but if I had to cross any of these fields, I wouldn't fancy my chances.
05:33 Before construction started on the Kuro site, there was quite a lot of work done to improve
05:38 the drainage in this area to prevent localised flooding. And you can see that they've kept
05:42 the access road open for the existing properties. But it just goes to reinforce how much this
05:50 area is going to be transformed in the coming years. And of course, in amongst all of the
05:57 sites that actually have planning permission in place, there is the spectre or the opportunity,
06:03 depending on your view, of 1,700 new homes stretching all the way from this kind of area
06:10 to the busy A361 as part of the Selwood Garden community. Now, what we may be able to do
06:18 as we come off Sandys Hill Lane and onto Little Kiefford Lane just here, first of all, we're
06:24 going to let these ladies and gentlemen go past. And then we're just going to quickly
06:31 cross over and you can see just down in the distance there, I know that the zoom on these
06:36 streams isn't brilliant, but you can just see or certainly hear the A361 murmuring in
06:42 the distance. And if the Selwood Garden community plans are approved, 1,700 new homes along
06:48 with a new primary school, new commercial space, either side of the main road, various
06:54 other facilities will completely swallow up all this green space, most of which is currently
06:59 in active use as farmland. You can see various farmhouses dotted around. Now, fortunately
07:05 for some, National Highways, which is responsible for managing the A361 and the A3, sorry, the
07:11 A36 leading between Froome and Bath, they have put up long-term concerns about how well
07:18 the existing roundabouts on the edge of Froome and the A36 are going to cope with that much
07:23 traffic from the new homes. So they have put on a condition saying, we cannot have a decision
07:28 on the Selwood Garden community proposals until an improvement scheme to all of those
07:33 roundabouts and funding for the A36 has been agreed. So I mentioned this now because the
07:39 Selwood Garden community, if it happens, is still many years away. We're not looking at
07:43 delivery of any new homes, assuming planning permission was granted tomorrow, until at
07:47 least the end of the decade, you know, once the lawyers have had plenty of time to sit
07:51 down and work out all the nitty gritty. But this does give you an idea of how rural this
07:57 area of Froome still is at the moment and how greatly that would change in the years
08:02 ahead. So I suggest if you're not keen on the idea of new houses at this edge of the
08:08 town that you get out and explore this part of Froome while you still can. We've already
08:13 run into a couple of dog walkers this morning. There's a couple of people out on bicycles
08:17 as well. I'm going to do my best not to get run over by anything that comes our way. And
08:21 thank you very much in advance for bearing with me. If you haven't, just join me. It's
08:26 Daniel Mumby here, your local democracy reporter. We're back in Froome and it is so far a cold
08:33 but sunny October day. We're exploring all the big housing development sites at the southern
08:38 edge of the town. We started our journey at the Kiefford Meadows site on Sandys Hill Lane,
08:44 where 198 homes are currently being constructed by Curo. And what we're doing now is we're
08:50 walking up Little Kiefford Lane into the site of three further developments, all of which
08:57 were allocated in the Local Plan Part Two before Mendick District Council was abolished.
09:03 And you'll have to bear with me for just a little stretch because, first of all, we're
09:08 slightly uphill so I may sound a little more breathless. I'll try not to disturb that man
09:12 doing some landscaping on the hedge. And also, it's a small trek before we get to the first
09:19 of those new homes. So please just bear with me. I'll just pass this gentleman now. As
09:34 I said at the start of this stream, this still feels like a tiny rural backwater. Unless
09:42 you could hear the 361 in the distance, you wouldn't know that we're in one of Somerset's
09:47 largest towns. And there is such a push when we deliver new housing developments to try
09:56 and retain the landscape and the character of the area. It's not just about the appearance
10:01 of the houses in terms of using local stones so that they blend into the existing properties.
10:09 But if we assume that new homes are needed in the quantity and the size that they are,
10:15 in terms of the individual properties, that is, it's a question of how do we deliver those
10:20 while balancing the need to retain the natural environment as best we can. Again, I'm just
10:28 going to double check the map to ensure that we are heading in the right direction. And
10:34 we are. I'll also let this lady and gentleman go past. Good morning. So we are now heading
10:44 up to near the top of Little Kiefford Lane. And if we were to continue straight ahead,
10:51 we would eventually come out at the edge of the Marston Road industrial estate near the
10:57 town's household waste recycling centre, not far from the enterprise centre, which is going
11:02 to be refurbished in the coming years. But we're not going to go that way just yet. We're
11:07 going to turn straight into the blinding sun and head down this little lane. Because when
11:15 we come out of the bottom of this lane onto the B3092 amount, that will lead us to the
11:24 first few of the Kiefford development site. Just to go back to the local plan part two.
11:31 So that was ratified in December 2021. And that included an allocation for 325 new homes
11:41 across three sites in this tranquil area of this beautiful town. Now, when Mendick District
11:50 Council was abolished, that plan automatically carried over to the new unitary Somerset Council.
11:58 And you might have read in the papers, articles that we have run surrounding a judicial review
12:05 of the local plan part two, which has involved some sites being taken out. Now those sites
12:11 surround a concerned three sites around the edge of Midsomer Norton, along with one in
12:18 Beckington and one in Norton St Philip. So not a million miles from Froome, but the process
12:26 of replacing those sites is very much still ongoing. And it doesn't mean that the sites
12:32 that we're walking past now, and are going to be observing more closely, it doesn't mean
12:36 that they are automatically ruled out. If nothing else, because they already have planning
12:41 permission in place. So the judicial review doesn't disrupt the progress of delivering
12:46 those homes in that sense. And again, let's just take a quick pause to show how far up
12:50 we are. It's not something you realise until you visit Froome that there is such a, not
12:56 a sharp slope down to the main road. And you can just see the back of the Kiefford Meadows
13:01 site of how far out into the existing fields they're coming. There will be green buffers
13:07 put in place of course, as we meet our first motorised vehicle. I'll just step in. Very
13:18 courteous of him. I think it was a he anyway, apologies if I've mistaken you there. So these
13:25 three sites that we're going to be exploring in a minute, have all got planning permission
13:29 in place. Construction has not yet started because we're still at various stages of sorting
13:36 out the legal agreements. And in fact, there is a reserved matters application pending
13:40 on one of the three sites in the Kiefford area, where they've actually chosen to reduce
13:44 the number of homes. And whether that is a blessing or the opposite, I wasn't going to
13:49 say curse, but yeah, it's not for me to make your minds up for you on that front. I mean,
13:55 there are arguments on both sides about how to fix the housing crisis. And the job of
13:59 streams like this is not to just have a mouthpiece for my opinion and say that everybody else
14:07 is wrong. It's to start a conversation. And please do have that conversation in the comments.
14:13 And we're always keen to hear your opinions. If you've only just joined me, it's Daniel
14:19 Mumby, your local democracy reporter. And I am in the southern edge of Froome, although
14:25 it feels like I could be in the open countryside. We are walking in the Kiefford area, exploring
14:32 all the different housing development sites, which have been approved in one form or another,
14:38 and showing how Froome's southern edge will change drastically in the coming years. And
14:47 I just need to double check the map again to ensure that we are still heading in the
14:51 right direction. There are so many little lanes in this area that snake in and out of
14:54 each other that it's very easy to get lost. And we just need to head up this way. And
15:06 like I say, we are using public roads these days. So everything that I am walking on is
15:13 entirely open to the public. We're not using any waterlogged footpaths or cycle routes
15:18 today. So fortunately, I haven't had to go for my Wellington boots. Nevertheless, I'm
15:23 going to be just very careful because as you can clearly see, there are no pavements in
15:27 this part of Froome. And frankly, even if they insisted on pavements as part of the
15:32 planning permissions, it's very difficult to know where they fit them. So we are now
15:38 coming out onto the B3092, known locally as the Mount. And understandably, that means
15:50 more cars coming our way. So I will have to be quite careful. And you can just see ahead
15:56 of me the homes on Dragonfly Close, which were finished a few years ago. I'm going to
16:02 cross over to the other side. And so I can give you an indication when we get close to
16:07 that of what homes are going where. So the three keyford sites which are allocated in
16:14 the Local Plan Part 2 are the two fields either side of me and the one further up on the left
16:22 which we'll come to. Now, the two fields either side of me here on either side of the Mount
16:28 have both been given planning permission to David Wilson Homes. You can see that the Harris
16:35 fencing is already in place to secure the land. I'm just going to step in a little because
16:41 there are more cars coming down. Now the land over in that direction originally had permission
16:47 for, I think it was 130 houses. I'll double check those figures for you whilst we're waiting
16:54 for the cars. It's very difficult to do this left-handed when you're naturally right-handed
17:05 in terms of using your phone. And again, it just reinforces how many cars are passing
17:09 down this way. And this is supposed to be a quiet Saturday morning. Imagine what it's
17:13 going to be like when there are hundreds of homes on this doorstep. So David Wilson Homes
17:22 got approval for 249 homes across either side, across these two sites. Now the land to the
17:29 west, that land over there, originally had permission for 131 but they are now reducing
17:36 that down to 104 so that they can fit in extra attenuation ponds, additional landscaping.
17:43 And this land over here will have 118 homes on it. So both of those sites are going to
17:48 be delivered by David Wilson Homes. Apologies if we dropped out for a second there. We had
17:53 a little bit of a snow connection. So those two sites are going to come on stream at roughly
17:58 the same time. Again, I'm just going to have to get into the hedge a little bit. There's
18:02 no real passing points here. And crucially, each of those two sites, even though they're
18:10 being brought forward by the same developer, will have separate staggered access points
18:16 rather than a new roundabout being created. The Mendock District Council Planning Board
18:20 looked at the possibility of a roundabout here, or rather they asked the developers
18:26 to look at a possibility of a roundabout, but they concluded that there wasn't enough
18:29 space for it. And you know what, looking at this road in the flesh, I don't entirely blame
18:36 them, though it would certainly have helped sort out the traffic flow situation. So those
18:42 two homes will come on stream, we expect sometime middle of next year. We don't have a precise
18:47 start date from David Wilson Homes on that, but we understand that a lot of the legal
18:52 agreements and the nitty gritty in terms of funding for local schools, improvements to
18:56 the surrounding roads and so forth are still being worked out. And up on the left here,
19:01 again, I'm just having to pause, there are so many cars passing by and frankly, I'm being
19:07 a bit of an inconvenience, though Froome residents with their typical courtesy are slowing down
19:12 and overtaking me very nicely. And the site up here on the left, once we let this Jaguar
19:19 go past, other cars are available, is going to be the site of a further 70 homes brought
19:26 forward by a different developer, namely Wayne Homes. Now this site had a little bit more
19:31 of a chequered history, where Mendip District Council originally refused planning permission
19:37 because Wayne Homes wanted to put the access road onto Little Kiefford Lane near the recycling
19:43 centre rather than putting it opposite here. And there was a threat on the developers part
19:52 to go to the Planning Inspectorate to lodge an appeal and therefore they could reverse
19:56 the Council's decision. But fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. And you can see, work has
20:03 already at a very preliminary stage as we cross over onto the edge of Dragonfly Close.
20:08 You can see the existing homes already here. So the access to this development will be
20:15 on to the B3092. And again, we expect a certain amount of paving to be created so that if
20:23 you want to walk to the town centre from here, the whole cycle, it's a little less precarious
20:28 than it currently is. And you can just see, the boards have currently gone up, there's
20:34 been some advance preparatory work in terms of cutting down the hedgerows, the site being
20:39 secured and we anticipate that Wayne Homes will want to start actually putting spades
20:46 in the ground and putting the foundations in very, very shortly. You can see there are
20:52 some works at a reasonably advanced stage but no detailed stuff as yet. It's just the
21:00 path of the estate roads being laid out and those new homes will extend all the way out
21:06 to Little Keyford Lane. There will be a footpath that goes on to Little Keyford Lane and allows
21:10 you access to the trading estate. So theoretically, you can walk to work if you live on that development
21:18 and work on the trading estate and therefore the developer gets to say, "See, it's sustainable!"
21:24 But we all know from experience, it's very rarely as simple as that. So we've come through
21:30 the Keyford area, having started at Keyford Meadows. Now there's just a little bit of
21:36 a hiatus. I'm going to walk a little quicker and hopefully get a slightly better signal
21:41 because we are now going to walk a little further into the town until we come to a beloved
21:48 green space. I'm sure you know it well if you're a Froome resident called the Dippy.
21:51 We've got to follow that all the way through and that will lead us to the final sites that
21:56 we're looking at today, namely the old print work site being delivered by the Acorn Property
22:03 Group which is already at a very advanced stage of construction and the recently approved
22:09 Persimmon development on the Cupernall factory site where a further 25 homes will be built.
22:15 So please stick with us in amongst all the traffic and the threats of me getting run
22:19 over and I will bring you further details of those developments once we get a little
22:30 closer. This is really the quickest way to get it. We could have cut through Dragonfly
22:34 Close and gone a slightly more circuitous route through Feltham Lane but I felt that
22:39 that wouldn't really illustrate what we're trying to show here. Now you may have seen
22:44 the actual Froome sign as we came in here and one of the issues with these developments
22:49 is that although they are on the edge of the town of Froome, they encroach into the neighbouring
22:55 parishes including Beckington and Selwood and the parishes to the south of the A361.
23:03 We've had issues in my neck of the woods in Chard with all the development that's going
23:08 on at the south and eastern edges of the town because a lot of that is in the neighbouring
23:13 parish of Tapworth and Forton. Tiny little villages with very little facilities, perfectly
23:18 nice to live in but expected to take hundreds of new homes to serve a settlement that isn't
23:25 theirs. You can just see as we head up the mount, past the laundrette and the co-op that
23:30 there are various paths snaking through the housing estates which we could follow but
23:35 I figured the dippy was a nicer way to explore this territory. Thank you for bearing with
23:40 me with all the signal issues that we've been having. Froome is normally pretty good for
23:44 4G service but we have been on the fringes of it so I guess I should have taken that
23:48 with more of a pinch of salt. And if you have just joined me, there's still plenty more
23:53 to come. I'm Daniel Mumby, as ever, your local democracy reporter. Thank you very much
23:57 to that lady and gentleman for letting me cross. We are in the southern edge of Froome.
24:02 We're walking up the B309 to the mount. Having started our journey at the Kuro development
24:09 on Sandys Hill Lane, known as Kiefford Meadows, we're talking about all the housing sites
24:14 at Froome's southern edge which are going to change the landscape of this area permanently
24:19 in the years and decades to come. We've talked about the nearly 200 homes at Kiefford Meadows
24:24 itself being constructed by Kuro. We've talked about the Selwood Garden community of up to
24:29 1,700 new homes along with new schools, new commercial space and a wetlands park and facility
24:37 which is being planned and that would stretch all the way from Kiefford to the A361. We've
24:44 been around the three Kiefford sites identified in the local plan part two which are being
24:49 brought forward by Wayne Homes and David Wilson Homes, delivering around 300 homes between
24:56 them. And now what we're going to do, again to reinforce the contrast between the new
25:03 developments and the green space which we're trying so desperately to cherish and protect,
25:09 we're going to take a little cut through a path called the Dippy which if you've never
25:13 visited Froome before runs from here to Adderwell Road and we will be finishing our journey
25:20 at the two big brownfield sites near Adderwell Road, the former Cuperinol factory which is
25:28 being brought forward by Persimmon and the old print work site which is being constructed
25:33 currently by the Acorn Property Group. And speaking of Acorn as we move into the Dippy,
25:42 you may have seen in the last couple of weeks the story that we ran about the status of
25:47 the Saxon Vale site which Acorn is also helping to bring forward or hoping to bring forward
25:51 I should say. Essentially if you're not familiar with the story, there have been two rival
26:00 bids to develop the Saxon Vale site which lies in the heart of Froome town centre, former
26:06 home of Knott's Industries of course. One scheme put forward by the Acorn Property Group
26:12 for around 300 homes and a certain amount of commercial space and one put forward by
26:18 the local May Day Saxon Vale Community Development Group for 182 homes, more commercial space,
26:27 a Lido and other facilities. Now May Day Saxon Vale won a judicial review against Somerset
26:34 Council, formerly Mendip Council, with the judge showing that the council had not followed
26:41 its own policies in ensuring that enough employment land was secured on the Saxon Vale site and
26:48 therefore the Acorn permission has been thrown out. And therefore it's very much back to
26:53 the drawing board. Acorn have said that they're going to submit their outline plans again
26:57 and the new Somerset Council and its planning committee east which covers the former Mendip
27:02 area will have I imagine a lengthy and robust debate about it and what I'm going to do now
27:09 is just quickly skirt around so we don't trouble these dog walkers too much. So we will obviously
27:17 bring you updates on that but I think it's relevant to flag that up considering that
27:21 we are heading towards a site that Acorn is developing at the moment and it will give
27:28 you an idea of what the Saxon Vale site would look like if and when they bring it forward.
27:34 I'm sure there are many people watching who would greatly prefer the May Day vision and
27:38 it's a very difficult position for the council to be in because they're essentially wearing
27:43 two hats. The council as planning authority could approve the May Day scheme tomorrow
27:48 and say yeah go ahead and do it but the council as property owner wants to get the best financial
27:53 return on the Saxon Vale site and there are concerns which they have shared with us about
27:59 how viable the May Day scheme may be not just in terms of delivering the needed housing
28:04 but ensuring that the brownfield site can be properly decontaminated and everything
28:08 else. Some of the decontamination has already been done as a result of more than three million
28:14 pounds of Homes England funding which was provided to the council to clear the land
28:18 and start the decontamination but there are always risks when bringing forward brownfield
28:25 sites. May I just say for someone who's never visited this particular green haven in Froome
28:30 before the Dippy is very pretty. I can imagine it would look even better in the summer when
28:36 it's more kind of lustrous grass but I'm very much an autumn person. I love walking through
28:43 wet leaves, I love the little streams and the reds and the oranges and yellows that
28:48 you get in autumn. It's a really special place to explore and thank you for joining
28:52 me on this little stroll today. If you haven't already just join me, don't worry there's
28:58 still plenty to come. It's Daniel Mumby here your local democracy reporter. I'm currently
29:02 walking through the Dippy green space at the southern edge of Froome. We've been exploring
29:06 the development sites being brought forward on the southern edge of the town. We started
29:13 near the Froome McDonald's on the southwestern edge where Curo is delivering nearly 200 homes
29:19 in its Kiefford Meadows site. We've been through the wider Kiefford area looking at the David
29:24 Wilson homes and Wayne home sites which are various stages of delivery and now we're just
29:28 taking a little shortcut or as short a cut as we can to get to our final two sites which
29:34 lie much closer to the river. Thank you very much for your company so far. Apologies if
29:40 I missed any of your comments. We've had some signal issues which have just led to slow
29:46 connections at certain points so if I have missed your comment please do not despair.
29:51 I will respond when the video is over but thank you very much for your company so far
29:55 and please give me a shout if you've been on from the very beginning because it's always
29:59 nice to have such rewarding company and we really appreciate your loyalty and your patience.
30:06 Again I'm just going to double check the map to ensure that we are still heading in the
30:09 right direction and we are as we come out of the dippy. We are coming into the Adderwell
30:17 area of the town and you might just be able again to hear various murmurs as birdsong
30:25 gives way to the brutality of revving engines and sewage pumps just hurtling in the background
30:32 and we are going to head up this little road here. You might sort of sense a change in
30:38 the character of the town. There's natural hamstone and red brick and very pretty walls.
30:48 Always makes me think of the Cotswolds when I see walls like this. It's not quite a drystone
30:52 wall but I can understand the effect they've been going for. It's not just Yorkshire that
30:56 can take pride in that sort of architecture. Again apologies if I'm sounding a little out
31:02 of breath as a result of going slightly uphill but I like to think that if I was doing this
31:09 walk six months ago I'd sound even worse. My stamina is getting a little bit better
31:14 and again thank you for your perseverance in this matter. So just to put it into context
31:22 the number of homes that could be delivered in total, the people I'm sure would like,
31:29 again we're talking nearly 200 homes at Kiefford Meadow, around 320 homes, maybe a little less,
31:40 on the three Kiefford sites so that brings us up to 525 on the Couperinol site which
31:45 we're coming to very shortly and then nearly 160 which are being delivered on the former
31:53 Printworks site. So that brings the total to around 700 and that rises to 2,400 if you
32:04 put the Selwood community back on the map. So we're talking drastic change. I mean that's
32:09 creating a settlement half the size of Wincanton, give or take, onto the edge of a town which
32:18 already has a population in excess of 40,000 and you might just be able to see the homes
32:27 on the old Printworks site as we reach our final destination. We're bending off Adderwell
32:33 Road onto Adderwell Lane and I will quickly talk you through the final two sites we're
32:41 covering here. So we'll get to the homes in the background in a second but this land in
32:48 front of me here, fenced off, used to be the Couperinol factory in Froome until it was
32:54 demolished many years ago and earlier this year Persimmon Homes South West secured permission
33:01 from Somerset Council to deliver 25 new homes on this site including a certain amount of
33:07 affordable housing. You can see although the site is fenced off to keep out vandals and
33:12 squatters and everything else, things are still at a very early age. We anticipate that
33:16 a lot of this area is going to have to be raised up to prevent localised flooding and
33:21 of course it's brownfield so there are decontamination processes to go through as well as clearing
33:27 all the vegetation. So we're probably looking at middle to late of next year before that
33:32 starts coming on stream and beyond it a site that many Froome residents will be familiar
33:38 with, the old Printworks site which is being delivered by the Acorn Property Group and
33:44 will eventually have 159 homes in it. We're heading into phase three of that delivery,
33:50 a large number of the properties have already been built and I understand a substantial
33:53 amount have already been sold. Froome of course, its town council declared a housing crisis
33:58 not so long ago, there is a huge shortage of affordable housing in Froome and that is
34:02 one of the big issues that will surround the delivery of all the previous sites that we've
34:06 encountered. And just one last thing to point out, I won't get too close to the construction
34:10 site because there are people working on it and I don't want to put myself in danger,
34:15 but you can just see a little footpath that runs off to the right and that will eventually
34:19 lead to a series of boardwalks along the River Froome which will link this site to the railway
34:26 station and then on to the town centre via the footpath along Willow Vale which you may
34:32 remember and through Rodden Meadow which you may remember from my Saxon Vale stream earlier
34:36 in the year. So there we have it, we have come to the end of our journey, we have reached
34:43 the eastern edge of Froome's southern edge, eastern end of Froome's southern edge I should
34:48 say, we have come to the old print work site and I hope that this video has been informative
34:52 to you about how drastically and fundamentally Froome is going to be changed over the next
34:58 few years as construction continues on the sites that are already up and running and
35:02 new sites that have either got permission or are waiting in the wings come on stream.
35:07 If you have missed any part of this video it will be available indefinitely on our Facebook
35:11 page, I will respond to any comments that I have missed. As per usual we will drop relevant
35:15 articles into the comments section so you can get background on all the developments
35:19 we have discussed and keep a look out for an article summarising all of the stuff that
35:23 we talked about early next week. In the meantime this has been Daniel Mumby, your local democracy
35:28 Reporter and I'm going to walk back.
Recommended
0:38
0:17
2:18
1:00
0:42
0:37