Saxonvale: A Landmark for Localism?

January 2025 — How Radical Democracy and Community Innovation Shaped the Future of a Historic Industrial Site in Somerset

This Thursday, Somerset Council’s executive will hold a meeting to decide the future of a former industrial site at Saxonvale in Frome, Somerset. The question at hand: whether to approve the sale of the site to Mayday Saxonvale, a community-focused developer proposing a locally-driven plan for its regeneration.

The site is of historical significance, once home to a variety of mills and factories that contributed to Frome's prominence in the cloth trade during the medieval and early modern periods. The area thrived as a hub of manufacturing and trade, with its proximity to the River Frome providing vital waterpower for the mills.

At the heart of the discussion is the choice between a locally-rooted vision that prioritises community needs, and alternatives that lean more heavily on commercial interests. For many in Frome, this decision is about shaping the town’s future and ensuring development aligns with local values.

Radical local democracy

The significance of Saxonvale extends beyond a small-town bun fight. Ten years after Flatpack Democracy delivered a full house of independent councillors to Frome Town Council, Saxonvale is an example of how radical local democracy and innovative place-making can combine to prevail over commercial interests in local development.

Independents for Frome (IFF) was established as a political party in 2010, co-founded by Peter Macfadyen alongside other members of the Sustainable Frome group, which was a part of the Transition Towns network. At their first election in 2011, IFF candidates won 10 out of 17 seats, and three of these councillors were members of Sustainable Frome.

Four years later, IFF won all 17 council seats, effectively banishing party politics from the town. Saxonvale was a key issue in this local political revolution, attracting local activists to step onto the ballot. Arguably, the site was central to the insurgent party’s identity in opposition to a party political, profit-driven regime that had repeatedly disregarded community knowledge and interests in matters of local development.

Formal and informal networks

As detailed in a recent book by researcher Amy Burnett, one of the effects of this local political revolution was the creation of an overlap between “regime” and “niche” interests, formal and informal networks. Thus, local people who opposed developments such as Saxonvale found allies in positions of power who were not bound by party political imperatives. Indeed, many of them were friends and neighbours.

Sustainable Frome were heavily involved with the Vision 4 Frome (V4F) group which consulted 3,000 residents in developing a Community Plan for the town in 2008. Under the newly elected IFF council, the V4F plan became a blueprint for the development of a statutory Neighbourhood Plan for the town. Adopted in 2016, the plan features the promotion of a “comprehensive and sustainable regeneration plan” for the Saxonvale site as one of its key objectives.

Community innovation and localism

Under the Localism Act (2011) applications to the local authority for planning permission must be determined in accordance with a Neigbourhood Plan. For Burnett, Frome offers an example of how this form of localism, instituted by the Conservative Government, could be exploited by some as a means to “solicit more radical forms of placemaking…able to cast new approaches to a more community-centred, sustainable, resilient an experimental local participatory landscape”. As statutory consultees on planning decisions, planning officers working on the staff of Frome Town Council reiterate the objectives of the Neighbourhood Plan while simultaneously acting as a source of information and advice for local residents and groups.

According to Frome Town Council’s Planning and Development Manager, Jane Llewellyn–what has happened in Frome as a consequence has been nothing short of “revolutionary”. The number of interest groups emerging in response to planning applications has mushroomed alongside the level of scrutiny over developments, reducing the likelihood that unsuitable proposals are passed. Indeed, as Burnett’s research highlights, the past decade in Frome has seen a rapid growth in the network of community groups responding to a whole range of issues and interests, both economic and environmental, many of which have found support at the Town Hall.

Scrutiny

This is exemplified by Mayday Saxonvale, which—by activating the local community in support of their campaign—succeeded in stymying Somerset Council’s apparently inexorable progress towards selecting their preferred bidder for the site, Acorn Property Group. Then, in August last year, a dramatic twist. Hours after the county council voted to sell Saxonvale to Acorn following a fractious public meeting, Acorn withdrew. “It has become abundantly clear”, they stated “the local community does not wish to work with Acorn and on that basis we have decided to withdraw from the process.

On Thursday, there is hope that Burnett’s thesis will prove correct, that localism, radical local democracy and community innovation can make our towns and cities better places to live.