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00:00Greetings, once again, people of Somerset. It's Daniel Mumby, your local democracy reporter,
00:07and you join me in Froome, specifically on Sandys Hill Lane, near the town's McDonald's
00:13restaurant, as breakfast is just coming to an end. Traffic is building up nicely through
00:17the drive-thru, so that's why I'm having to shout. But I'm not here for a burger, or anything
00:22along those lines. I am here to talk about housing development at the southern edge of
00:27Froome. I'm standing in front of the Kiefford Meadows housing development, which is going
00:31to be delivering nearly 200 homes either side of Sandys Hill Lane, where we are at the moment.
00:36And for the next half hour or so, what we're going to do is we're going to head down little
00:41Sandys Hill Lane in front of us there. We're going to walk through the Kiefford area of
00:45the town, looking at all the different sites that will be turned into housing in the coming
00:50years, and showing you the dramatic transformation of the landscape, which is currently working
00:56agricultural fields. We're going to end up near the old print work site off Adelwell
01:01Lane, probably in around half an hour's time, and near the former Cuperinov factory. And
01:06I will be guiding you through each of the sites as we explore them. As usual with these
01:10Facebook Lives, please drop any comments that you have in the feed, and I'll get to as many
01:16of them live as I can. And those that I don't get round to, we will respond to retrospectively.
01:21So let's start at the start of our journey, which is a very good place to start, at Kiefford
01:26Meadows. Now, outline planning permission was granted back in 2021, I believe, for 235
01:33homes and commercial space on either side of Sandys Hill Lane. You can see we're right
01:37on the edge of the Marston Business Park, not just the McDonald's, we've got the KFC,
01:42the Greggs, the large Sainsbury's just over the way there. And this new development is
01:47intended to straddle either side of Sandys Hill Lane via a new purpose built junction,
01:53with the commercial space being close to the existing industrial and retail units,
01:58and then the homes backing away to the east on either side. Now, when Curo bought the
02:03site after outline planning permission was secured, the number of homes was reduced down
02:07to 198. Curo being, of course, a housing association, they were very keen on trying to get more
02:13green space in the site, offering more affordable homes within the area, it's 30% affordable
02:17housing. And you can see construction on those new homes is progressing very well. What we
02:22don't have at the moment is an idea of when the commercial units will come on stream.
02:29Construction on this development started back in January. And we expect the first homes
02:33to start filling up in the next phase in the run up to Christmas. So now what we're going
02:38to do is we're going to leave McDonald's behind and the Kiefford Meadow site, excuse me for
02:44panning a little too quickly, and we're going to head down the narrow and tranquil Sandys
02:49Hill lane. And I hope this will start to reinforce the kind of long running point that
02:54I'll be making throughout this video, which is, it's very easy to go straight from a busy
03:00built up area full of roaring cars and extractor fans. And then all of a sudden walk down a
03:06lane like this and feel like you're in the distant countryside. Obviously, I'm going
03:09to have to have my wits about me throughout this stream because we are going to be walking
03:13through sites that have no pavements at all. I'm not expecting these lanes to be too busy
03:18at the moment. I mean, we are nearing to 11 o'clock on a Saturday. We're not having to
03:23deal with school time or peak time rush hour traffic. But you will see gradually as we
03:29go from one site to the other, how much the landscape is already changing. And I'll leave
03:34it up to you to decide whether it's for better or for worse. As ever, I've got my other phone
03:40just in front of me to ensure that I don't get lost and waste your time in the process.
03:46And we just passed along this section of Sandy Hill Lane and you can see where the
03:53site crosses over. So that is the southern section of Kiefford Meadows, where new housing
03:58is already being delivered. And then the access road cuts across into the northern section
04:04of the site, wrapping around the existing back of the retail park and the Kiefford Farmhouse,
04:10which you can just see in the background there. And you can see the beginnings of a wide pavement,
04:15which hopefully will have a cycle route on it. Now, one of the reasons why so much housing
04:21is being allocated to the southern edge of Froome lies largely in decisions that were
04:26made a number of years ago surrounding the Mendip Local Plan. There have been two local
04:32plans put forward before Mendip District Council was abolished. One back in 2014, which set
04:37out some initial sites in and around the town. And more recently in December 2021, the Local
04:43Plan Part 2, which allocated a number of additional housing sites, including the Kiefford
04:49Meadows site that we are just passing now, and three parcels of land in the Kiefford
04:55area, all of which have now got planning permission. And essentially, we're going to follow Sandy
05:00Hill Lane down through the little Kiefford area. We'll have to slightly double back on
05:06ourselves. But I will walk you through onto the B3092, the Mount, to give you an idea
05:13of how these sites will all integrate. And again, you can see, I've tried to time this
05:19well in terms of the weather, we've had a lot of rain overnight. There's still a little
05:23bit of surface water around. It's not Wellington Boot territory this time, because I'm sticking
05:27to the tarmac roads. But if I had to cross any of these fields, I wouldn't fancy my chances.
05:33Before construction started on the Kuro site, there was quite a lot of work done to improve
05:38the drainage in this area to prevent localised flooding. And you can see that they've kept
05:42the access road open for the existing properties. But it just goes to reinforce how much this
05:50area is going to be transformed in the coming years. And of course, in amongst all of the
05:57sites that actually have planning permission in place, there is the spectre, or the opportunity,
06:03depending on your view, of 1,700 new homes stretching all the way from this kind of
06:09area to the busy A361 as part of the Selwood Garden community. Now, what we may be able
06:17to do as we come off Sandys Hill Lane and onto Little Keyford Lane, just here, first
06:23of all, we're going to let these ladies and gentlemen go past. And then we're just going
06:31to quickly cross over and you can see just down in the distance there, I know that the
06:35zoom on these streams isn't brilliant, but you can just see or certainly hear the A361
06:41murmuring in the distance. And if the Selwood Garden community plans are approved, 1,700
06:48new homes along with a new primary school, new commercial space, either side of the main
06:53road and various other facilities will completely swallow up all this green space, most of which
06:59is currently in active use as farmland. You can see various farmhouses dotted around.
07:04Now, fortunately for some, National Highways, which is responsible for managing the A361
07:10and the A3, sorry, the A36 leading between Froome and Bath, they have put up long-term
07:16concerns about how well the existing roundabouts on the edge of Froome and the A36 are going
07:22to cope with that much traffic from the new homes. So they have put on a condition saying,
07:27we cannot have a decision on the Selwood Garden community proposals until an improvement
07:32scheme to all of those roundabouts and funding for the A36 has been agreed. So I mentioned
07:38this now because the Selwood Garden community, if it happens, is still many years away. We're
07:42not looking at delivery of any new homes, assuming planning permission was granted tomorrow,
07:47until at least the end of the decade, you know, once the lawyers have had plenty of
07:51time to sit down and work out all the nitty gritty. But this does give you an idea of
07:56how rural this area of Froome still is at the moment and how greatly that would change
08:01in the years ahead. So I suggest if you're not keen on the idea of new houses at this
08:07edge of the town, that you get out and explore this part of Froome while you still can. We've
08:13already run into a couple of dog walkers this morning. There's a couple of people out on
08:16bicycles as well. I'm going to do my best not to get run over by anything that comes
08:19our way. And thank you very much in advance for bearing with me. If you haven't, just
08:25join me. It's Daniel Mumby here, your local democracy reporter. We're back in Froome.
08:31And it is, so far, a cold but sunny October day. We're exploring all the big housing development
08:38sites at the southern edge of the town. We started our journey at the Kiefford Meadows
08:42site on Sandys Hill Lane, where 198 homes are currently being constructed by Curo. And
08:49what we're doing now is we're walking up Little Kiefford Lane into the site of three
08:55further developments, all of which were allocated in the Local Plan Part 2 before Mendick District
09:01Council was abolished. And you will have to bear with me for just a little stretch because,
09:07first of all, we're slightly uphill so I may sound a little more breathless. Try not to
09:12disturb that man doing some landscaping on the hedge. And also, it's a small trek before
09:18we get to the first of those new homes. So please just bear with me. I'll just pass this
09:23gentleman now. As I said at the start of this stream, this still feels like a tiny rural
09:40backwater. Unless you could hear the 361 in the distance, you wouldn't know that we're
09:46in one of Somerset's largest towns. And there is such a push when we deliver new housing
09:55developments to try and retain the landscape and the character of the area. It's not just
09:59about the appearance of the houses in terms of using local stone so that they blend into
10:07the existing properties. But if we assume that new homes are needed in the quantity
10:13and the size that they are, the size of the individual properties that is, it's a question
10:18of how do we deliver those while balancing the need to retain the natural environment
10:25as best we can. Again, I'm just going to double-check the map to ensure that we are heading in the
10:33right direction, and we are. I'll also let this lady and gentleman go past. Good morning.
10:43So we are now heading up to near the top of Little Keyford Lane. And if we were to continue
10:49straight ahead, we would eventually come out at the edge of the Marston Road Industrial
10:55Estate near the town's Household Waste Recycling Centre, not far from the Enterprise Centre,
11:01which is going to be refurbished in the coming years. But we're not going to go that way
11:06just yet. We're going to turn straight into the blinding sun and head down this little
11:12lane because when we come out of the bottom of this lane onto the B309-2 amount, that
11:21will lead us to the first few of the Keyford development site. Just to go back to the local
11:29plan part two. So that was ratified in December 2021, and that included an allocation for
11:38325 new homes across three sites in this tranquil area of this beautiful town. Now, when Mendip
11:49District Council was abolished, that plan automatically carried over to the new Unitary
11:57Somerset Council. And you might have read in the papers, articles that we have run surrounding
12:04a judicial review of the local plan part two, which has involved some sites being taken
12:09out. Now those sites surround, they concern three sites around the edge of Midsomer Norton,
12:17along with one in Beckington, and one in Norton St Philip. So not a million miles from Froome,
12:25but the process of replacing those sites is very much still ongoing, and it doesn't
12:31mean that the sites that we're walking past now, and are going to be observing more closely,
12:36it doesn't mean that they are automatically ruled out. If nothing else, because they already
12:40have planning permission in place, so the judicial review doesn't disrupt the progress
12:45of delivering those homes in that sense. And again, let's just take a quick pause to show
12:49how far up we are. It's not something you realise until you visit Froome that there
12:55is such a sharp slope down to the main road, and you can just see the back of the Keyford
13:00Meadows site of how far out into the existing fields they're coming. There will be green
13:07buffers put in place of course, as we meet our first motorised vehicle. I'll just step
13:13in. Very courteous of him. I think it was a he anyway, apologies if I've mistaken you
13:23there. So these three sites that we're going to be exploring in a minute have all got planning
13:29permission in place. Construction has not yet started because we're still at various
13:35stages of sorting out the legal agreements, and in fact there is a reserved matters application
13:40pending on one of the three sites in the Keyford area, where they've actually chosen to reduce
13:44the number of homes. And whether that is a blessing or the opposite, I wasn't going to
13:49say curse, but it's not for me to make your minds up for you on that front. I mean there
13:55are arguments on both sides about how to fix the housing crisis, and the job of streams
14:00like this is not to just have a mouthpiece for my opinion and say that everybody else
14:07is wrong, it's to start a conversation. And please do have that conversation in the comments,
14:13and we're always keen to hear your opinions. If you've only just joined me, it's Daniel
14:19Mumby, your local democracy reporter, and I am in the southern edge of Froome, although
14:25it feels like I could be in the open countryside. We are walking in the Keyford area, exploring
14:32all the different housing development sites which have been approved in one form or another,
14:38and showing how Froome's southern edge will change drastically in the coming years. And
14:47I just need to double check the map again to ensure that we are still heading in the
14:51right direction. There are so many little lanes in this area that snake in and out of
14:54each other that it's very easy to get lost, and we just need to head up this way. And
15:06like I say, we are using public roads these days, so everything that I am walking on
15:13is entirely open to the public. We're not using any waterlogged footpaths or cycle routes
15:18today, so fortunately I haven't had to go for my Wellington boots. Nevertheless, I'm
15:23having to be just very careful, because as you can clearly see, there are no pavements
15:27in this part of Froome, and frankly, even if they insisted on pavements as part of the
15:32planning permissions, it's very difficult to know where they'd fit them. So we are now
15:38coming out onto the B3092, known locally as the Mount, and understandably, that means
15:50more cars coming our way, so I will have to be quite careful. And you can just see ahead
15:56of me the homes on Dragonfly Close, which were finished a few years ago. I'm going to
16:02cross over to the other side, and so I can give you an indication when we get close
16:07to that, of what homes are going where. So, the three Kiefford sites, which are allocated
16:14in the Local Plan Part 2, are the two fields either side of me, and the one further up
16:22on the left, which we'll come to. Now, the two fields either side of me here, on either
16:26side of the Mount, have both been given planning permission to David Wilson Homes. You can
16:34see that the Harris fencing is already in place to secure the land. I'm just going to
16:40step in a little, because there are more cars coming down. Now, the land over in that direction
16:45originally had permission for, I think it was 130 houses. I'll double check those figures
16:53for you, whilst we're waiting for the cars. Yeah, it's very difficult to do this left-handed
17:03when you're naturally right-handed in terms of using your phone. And again, it just reinforces
17:08how many cars are passing down this way, and this is supposed to be a quiet Saturday morning.
17:13Imagine what it's going to be like when there are hundreds of homes on this doorstep. So,
17:20David Wilson Homes got approval for 249 homes across either side, across these two sites. Now,
17:28the land to the west, that land over there, originally had permission for 131, but they
17:35are now reducing that down to 104, so that they can fit in extra attenuation ponds, additional
17:41landscaping. And this land over here will have 118 homes on it. So, both of those sites are going to
17:48be delivered by David Wilson Homes. Apologies if we dropped out for a second there, we had a little
17:53bit of a snow connection. So, those two sites are going to come on stream at roughly the same time.
17:59Again, I'm just going to have to get into the hedge a little bit, there's no real passing points here.
18:04And crucially, each of those two sites, even though they're being brought forward by the same
18:12developer, will have separate staggered access points, rather than a new roundabout being created.
18:18The Mendip District Council Planning Board looked at the possibility of a roundabout here, or rather
18:24they asked the developers to look at a possibility of a roundabout, but they concluded that there
18:29wasn't enough space for it. And you know what, looking at this road in the flesh, I don't entirely
18:35blame them, though it would certainly have helped sort out the traffic flow situation. So, those two
18:42homes will come on stream, we expect sometime middle of next year. We don't have a precise
18:47start date from David Wilson Homes on that, but we understand that a lot of the legal agreements
18:52and the nitty-gritty in terms of funding for local schools, improvements to the surrounding
18:56roads and so forth, are still being worked out. And up on the left here, again I'm just having
19:04to pause, there are so many cars passing by and frankly I'm being a bit of an inconvenience, though
19:09Froome residents, with their typical courtesy, are slowing down and overtaking me very nicely.
19:14And the site up here on the left, once we let this Jaguar go past, other cars are available,
19:22is going to be the site of a further 70 homes brought forward by a different developer,
19:28namely Wayne Homes. Now this site had a little bit more of a chequered history,
19:32where Mendip District Council originally refused planning permission because Wayne
19:39Homes wanted to put the access road onto Little Keyford Lane, near the recycling centre, rather
19:45than putting it opposite here. And there was a threat on the developer's part to go to the
19:52Planning Inspectorate to lodge an appeal and therefore they could reverse the Council's
19:56decision. But fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and you can see
20:03work has already had a very preliminary stage as we cross over onto the edge of Dragonfly Close.
20:08You can see the existing homes already here, so the access to this development will be onto the
20:15B3092 and again we expect a certain amount of paving to be created so that if you want to
20:24walk to the town centre from here, the whole cycle, it's a little less precarious than it currently is.
20:30And you can just see the boards have currently gone up, there's been some advance
20:35preparatory work in terms of cutting down the hedgerows, the site being secured,
20:41and we anticipate that Wayne Homes will want to start actually putting spades in the ground and
20:46putting the foundations in very, very shortly. You can see there are some works at a reasonably
20:54advanced stage but no detailed stuff as yet, it's just the path of the estate roads being laid out
21:03and those new homes will extend all the way out to Little Keyford Lane. There will be a footpath
21:08that goes onto Little Keyford Lane and allows you access to the trading estate,
21:13so theoretically you can walk to work if you live on that development and work on the trading estate
21:19and therefore the developer gets to say, see it's sustainable. But we all know from experience,
21:26it's very rarely as simple as that. So we've come through the Keyford area, having started
21:32at Keyford Meadows, now there's just a little bit of a hiatus. I'm going to walk a little quicker
21:38and hopefully get a slightly better signal because we are now going to walk
21:44a little further into the town until we come to a beloved green space, I'm sure you know it well
21:49if you're a Froome resident, called the Dippy. We've got to follow that all the way through
21:54and that will lead us to the final sites that we're looking at today,
21:58namely the old print work site being delivered by the Acorn Property Group, which is already
22:03at a very advanced stage of construction, and the recently approved Persimmon development on
22:10the Cupronol factory site where a further 25 homes will be built. So please stick with us
22:17in amongst all the traffic and the threats of me getting run over and I will bring you
22:24further details of those developments once we get a little closer. This is really the quickest way
22:32to get it, we could have cut through Dragonfly Close and gone a slightly more circuitous route
22:37through Feltham Lane but I felt that that wouldn't really illustrate what we're trying to show here.
22:43Now you may have seen the actual Froome sign as we came in here and one of the issues with
22:48these developments is that although they are on the edge of the town of Froome,
22:53they encroach into the neighbouring parishes including Beckington and Selwood and the
22:59parishes to the south of the A361. We've had issues in my neck of the woods in Chard with
23:07all the development that's going on at the south and eastern edges of the town because a lot of that
23:12is in the neighbouring parish of Tapworth and Forton. Tiny little villages with very little
23:17facilities, perfectly nice to live in but expected to take hundreds of new homes to
23:24serve a settlement that isn't theirs. You can just see as we head up the mount past the laundrette
23:30and the co-op that there are various paths snaking through the housing estates which we could follow
23:34but I figured the dippy was a nicer way to explore this territory. Thank you for bearing with me with
23:41all the signal issues that we've been having. Froome is normally pretty good for 4G service but
23:45we have been on the fringes of it so I guess I should have taken that with more of a pinch of
23:49salt and if you have just joined me there's still plenty more to come. I'm Daniel Mumby, as ever,
23:55your local democracy reporter. Thank you very much to that lady and gentleman for letting me cross.
23:59We are in the southern edge of Froome. We're walking up the B309 to the mount. Having started
24:06our journey at the Kuro development on Sandys Hill Lane known as Keyford Meadows we're talking
24:12about all the housing sites at Froome's southern edge which are going to change the landscape of
24:17this area permanently in the years and decades to come. We've talked about the nearly 200 homes at
24:23Keyford Meadows itself being constructed by Kuro. We've talked about the Selwood Garden community of
24:29up to 1,700 new homes along with new schools, a new commercial space and a wetlands park and
24:36facility which is being planned and that would stretch all the way from Keyford to the A361.
24:44We've been around the three Keyford sites identified in the local plan part two
24:49which are being brought forward by Wayne Homes and David Wilson Homes delivering around 300
24:55homes between them and now what we're going to do again to reinforce the contrast between
25:03the new developments and the green space which we're trying so desperately to cherish and protect
25:08we're going to take a little cut through a path called the Dippy which if you've never
25:13visited Froome before runs from here to Adderwell Road and we will be finishing our journey
25:20at the two big brownfield sites near Adderwell Road the former Cuperinol factory
25:27which is being brought forward by Persimmon and the old Printwork site which is being constructed
25:33currently by the Acorn Property Group and speaking of Acorn as we move into the Dippy
25:42you may have seen in the last couple of weeks the story that we ran about the status of the
25:47Saxon Vale site which Acorn is also helping to bring forward or hoping to bring forward I should
25:52say essentially if you're not familiar with the story there have been two rival bids to develop
26:01the Saxon Vale site which lies in the heart of Froome town centre former home of Knott's
26:06Industries of course one scheme put forward by the Acorn Property Group for around 300 homes
26:15and a certain amount of commercial space and one put forward by the
26:19local Mayday Saxon Vale Community Development Group for 182 homes more commercial space
26:27a Lido and other facilities. Now Mayday Saxon Vale won a judicial review against Somerset Council
26:35formerly Mendip Council with the judge showing that the council had not followed its own policies
26:43in ensuring that enough employment land was secured on the Saxon Vale site and therefore
26:48the Acorn permission has been thrown out and therefore it's very much back to the drawing
26:53board Acorn have said that they're going to submit their outline plans again and the new Somerset
26:58Council and its planning committee east which covers the former Mendip area will have I imagine
27:04a lengthy and robust debate about it and what I'm going to do now is just quickly skirt around
27:11so we don't trouble these dog walkers too much
27:14so we will obviously bring you updates on that but I think it's it's relevant to flag that up
27:19considering that we are heading towards a site that Acorn is developing at the moment
27:25and it will give you an idea of what the Saxon Vale site would look like
27:29if and when they bring it forward. I'm sure there are many people watching who would
27:33greatly prefer the Mayday vision and it's a very difficult position for the council to be in
27:39difficult position for the council to be in because they're essentially wearing two hats
27:43the council as planning authority could approve the Mayday scheme tomorrow and say yeah go ahead
27:49and do it but the council as property owner wants to get the best financial return on the Saxon Vale
27:54site and there are concerns which they have shared with us about how viable the Mayday scheme may be
28:01not just in terms of delivering the needed housing but ensuring that the brownfield site can be
28:07properly decontaminated and everything else some of the decontamination has already been done
28:11as a result of more than three million pounds of Homes England funding which was
28:16provided to the council to clear the land and start the decontamination
28:21but there are always risks when bringing forward brownfield sites and may I just say for someone
28:27who's never visited this particular green haven in Froome before the dippy is very pretty I can
28:34imagine it would look even better in the summer when it's more kind of lustrous grass but I'm very
28:40much an autumn person I love walking through wet leaves I love the little streams and the
28:46the reds and the oranges and yellows that you get in autumn it's a really special place to explore
28:51and thank you for joining me on this little stroll today if you haven't you just join me don't worry
28:57there's still plenty to come it's Daniel Mumby here your local democracy reporter I'm currently
29:02walking through the dippy green space at the southern edge of Froome we've been exploring the
29:06development sites being brought forward on the southern edge of the town we started near the
29:13Froome McDonald's on the southwestern edge where Curo is delivering nearly 200 homes in its
29:19Kiefford meadow site we've been through the wider Kiefford area looking at the David Wilson homes
29:25and Wayne home sites which are various stages of delivery and now we're just taking a little
29:29shortcut or as short a cut as we can to get to our final two sites which lie much closer to the
29:36river thank you very much for all your company so far apologies if I missed any of your comments
29:41we've had some signal issues which have just led to slow connections at certain points so
29:48if I have missed your comment please do not despair I will respond when the video is over but
29:53thank you very much for your company so far and please give me a shout if you've been on from the
29:57very beginning because it's always nice to have such rewarding company and we really appreciate
30:03your loyalty and your patience again I'm just going to double check the map to ensure that we
30:08are still heading in the right direction and we are as we come out of the dippy we are coming into
30:16the Adderwell area of the town and you might just be able again to hear
30:23various murmurs as birdsong gives way to the brutality of revving engines
30:28and sewage pumps just hurtling in the background and we are going to head up this little road here
30:36you might sort of sense a change in the character of the town as natural hamstone and red brick
30:45and very pretty walls always makes me think of the Cotswolds
30:50when I see walls like this it's not quite a dry stone wall but I can understand the effect
30:54they've been going for it's not just Yorkshire that can take pride in that sort of architecture
31:00again apologies if I'm sounding a little out of breath as a result of going slightly uphill
31:05but I like to think that if I was doing this walk six months ago I'd sound even worse my
31:12stamina is getting a little bit better and again thank you for your perseverance in this matter
31:20so just to put it into context the number of homes that could be delivered in total
31:26people I'm sure would like then we're talking nearly 200 homes at Kiefford Meadow around 320
31:37homes maybe a little less on the three Kiefford sites so that brings us up to 525 on the Cooper
31:45site which we're coming to very shortly and then nearly 160 which are being delivered
31:53on the former print work site so that brings the total to around 700 and that rises to 2400
32:03if you put the Selwood community back on the map so we're talking drastic change I mean that's
32:09creating a settlement half the size of Wincanton give or take
32:15onto the edge of a town which already has a population in excess of 40,000 and you might
32:23just be able to see the homes on the old print work site as we reach our final destination
32:31we're bending off Adderwell Road onto Adderwell Lane
32:36and I will quickly talk you through the final two sites we're covering here so
32:44we'll get to the homes in the background in a second but this land in front of me here fenced
32:49off used to be the Cuperinol factory in Froome until it was demolished many years ago and earlier
32:57this year Persimmon Homes South West secured permission from Somerset Council to deliver 25
33:04new homes on this site including a certain amount of affordable housing you can see although the
33:09site is fenced off to keep out vandals and squatters and everything else things there are
33:14still at a very early age we anticipate that a lot of this area is going to have to be raised up
33:19to prevent localized flooding and of course it's brownfield so there are decontamination
33:25processes to go through as well as clearing all the vegetation so we're probably looking at
33:29middle to late of next year before that starts coming on stream and beyond it a site that many
33:37Froome residents will be familiar with the old print work site which is being delivered by the
33:42Acorn Property Group and will eventually have 159 homes in it we're heading into phase three
33:49of that delivery a large number of the properties have already been built and
33:52I understand a substantial amount have already been sold Froome of course its town council declared
33:57a housing crisis not so long ago there is a huge shortage of affordable housing in Froome
34:01and that is one of the big issues that will surround the delivery of all the previous sites
34:06that we've encountered and just one last thing to point out I won't get too close to the construction
34:10site because there are people working on it and don't want to put myself in danger but you can
34:15just see a little footpath that runs off to the right and that will eventually lead to a series
34:21of boardwalks along the River Froome which will link this site to the railway station and then on
34:27to the town centre via the footpath along Willow Vale which you may remember and through Rodden
34:34Meadow which you may remember from my Saxon Vale stream earlier in the year. So there we have it
34:39we have come to the end of our journey we have reached the eastern edge of Froome's southern edge
34:46eastern end of Froome's southern edge I should say we have come to the old print work site and I hope
34:51that this video has been informative to you about how drastically and fundamentally Froome is going
34:56to be changed over the next few years as construction continues on the sites that are
35:00already up and running and new sites that have either got permission or are waiting in the wings
35:05come on stream. If you've missed any part of this video it will be available indefinitely
35:10on our Facebook page I will respond to any comments that I've missed as per usual we'll drop
35:15relevant articles into the comment section so you can get background on all the developments we've
35:19discussed and keep a lookout for an article summarising all the stuff that we talked about
35:24early next week. In the meantime this has been Daniel Mumby your local democracy reporter
35:29and I'm going to walk back.