There are a hundred and one reasons to stop SGC in its tracks. It will adversely affect our environment, our children, our businesses, our infrastructure and our wildlife.
Now that the official planning application has been received we see a very different Selwood Garden community being touted than the one that was originally proposed.
This makes us suspicious, and we still urge you not to believe the green-washing and continue to oppose this harmful development.
If you are hoping to persuade others to join the fight then here are the 8 major reasons to Stop SGC:
- Selwood Garden Community (SGC) will put great pressure on the already overwhelmed infrastructure of Frome and the surrounding area. Suggestions of supporting infrastructure and investment into pre-existing public services are nothing more than conjecture until a binding legal agreement is in place.
- LVA’s proposal far exceeds the number of houses that Frome needs or the Council is required to provide to meet the quota set by the government. There is a shortfall of required housing in Mendip of 948 dwellings over the next five years. SGC would concentrate an excess amount of housing in Frome.
- When SGC is combined with other developments in the Little Keyford area, there could be as many as 2,300 new houses and as many as 6,000 more residents* that Frome’s infrastructure and services simply cannot handle.
- We are pleased to hear that LVA are in discussions to build social rented homes alongside the others right from the start, but it still seems to us an insufficient yield when held up against the scale of this proposal.
- Without adequate employment built in tandem with the new homes, the site will become a dormitory village for commuters who will spend little time in the town centre and be forced to drive to the ‘local’ shops. LVA’s new commitment to prioritising walking and cycling routes does not change the fact that the build is clearly designed around cars, for easy access to the bypass.
- It is unclear if LVA’s plan includes extra medical facilities or school places required to support a development on this scale. You can view the consultation with SCC education and NHS England and decide for yourself if what’s on offer looks to be sufficient.
- It will lead to more local traffic, clog Frome’s roads and increase air pollution along roads throughout town.
- As soon as building starts, SGC will result in the destruction of an area of natural habitats and farmland that is double the size of Bruton. Once the fields at Little Keyword are gone they are gone forever.
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*we have revised our figures based on new information from the Planning Application and the projected number of new residents is 6,418.
Stop SGC 