Protect Frome’s Packsaddle Community Fields
Support our campaign to protect this long-loved community space and wildlife haven from being destroyed forever for a financially motivated building development.
What’s happening
Somerset Council agreed to sell one of Frome’s cherished public areas of green space for a financially motivated, large housing development. The sale will only go through if planning is approved. The local community fought tooth and got the planning application refused. We then won a Planning Inquiry.
Somerset Council have since, under pressure from the developer, fenced off the fields leaving only the public right of way accessible and removing access to the permissive path and around 8 acres of open green space. Please sign the petition to help us overturn this action.
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My family have walked, picnicked and played in these fields for 40 years now. The trees and hedgerows are all ancient and the wildlife and birds are glorious. We desperately need these spaces.
— Local resident
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These fields have been a place of escapism and helped in my recovery from anxiety and depression. Green spaces for community use are essential for good mental health.
— Local resident
How can you help
Our main pleas for help are to sign the petition to get the fencing removed and financial support to help pay for our legal fees. You can also pledge your support by joining our supporters mailing list and encouraging others to join too. Please also follow us on social media for latest news – Facebook and Instagram.
We’re not against housing
We’re aware that there is a national need for affordable housing. However, it needs to be built in the right places with the right supporting infrastructure, like the proposed Mayday Saxonvale development which we wholeheartedly support.
Somerset County Council’s official decision report on the sale of Packsaddle fields made it clear that their reason for selling was financial rather than to address a need for affordable housing. Indeed, there is no mention of affordable or social housing whatsoever in the document.
Packsaddle fields is outside the Frome development boundary and is not in the local housing plan that was adopted by Mendip District Council in 2021. It is therefore a highly speculative development.
Furthermore, the fields are officially registered as an Asset of Community Value and a formal green space and should therefore be protected.
Why we oppose development on Packsaddle fields
- It is a critical community space that has been used by local residents and their families for over 40 years.
- It has high ecological value and is a haven for bats, hedgehogs, red kites, rabbits, owls and butterflies to name but a few.
- Building on these fields would go against Somerset Council’s own ecological emergency pledge.
- It is outside of the agreed Frome development boundary and not in the local housing plan.
- We shouldn’t be building on green spaces until all feasible brownfield sites have been developed. Frome still has some.
- Frome is already on track to exceed its housing targets and has already taken more than its fair share of Somerset’s overall target.
- Local infrastructure is already overstretched – sewage, healthcare, and traffic.
