In Frome, a Somerset town long accustomed to charting its own course, more than a thousand residents spent years and nearly a million pounds of their own money building a vision for their town's future — only to have that future handed to a London investment firm by the very council meant to serve them. The rejection of Mayday Saxonvale raises a question as old as civic life itself: when a community organises, invests, and speaks with one voice, who holds the authority to decide what a place becomes? The gap between democratic aspiration and institutional power rarely announces itself so plain
Somerset council rejects Frome residents' £1m community regeneration bid for London developer
People reached into their own pockets because they believe this place matters
Mark
Why does it matter that Frome residents raised their own money? Couldn't they have just lobbied the council without putting cash on the table?
Mimi
Because it changes what the project represents. When you invest your own money, you're not just expressing a preference—you're betting on a vision. Over a thousand people did that. It signals genuine commitment, not just noise.
Luke
But the council's argument was that Mayday didn't have full funding. Do we know if that's true or just a convenient excuse?
Mimi
Mayday had £1.2 million from Resonance, which was their largest-ever investment. They had other investors interested. The land was valued at about £3 million. So they were short, but not impossibly so.
Mark
And Newcore—what's their actual obligation now? Can they just build luxury flats?
Mimi
That's the fear. The council said the sale was unconditional. Newcore's statement mentions "partnership with the community," but there's no legal requirement for affordable housing or any of what Frome residents wanted.
Luke
The timing of those press releases—two minutes and fifteen minutes—that does look orchestrated. But is that evidence the decision was made beforehand, or just good PR coordination?
Mimi
It's suggestive. But you're right to push back. We can't prove the council decided before the meeting. What we know is that residents felt the meeting was performative, and the speed of the announcements reinforced that feeling.
Mark
So what happens now? Does Frome have any recourse?
Mimi
The town council said it would work with Newcore. But there's no mechanism to overturn the sale. The real question is whether Newcore will actually deliver what it promised about community partnership.
Luke
And we won't know that for years. This is a story about a decision made, not about outcomes. Fair to flag that?
Mimi
Absolutely. We're reporting what happened on Wednesday. What Saxonvale actually becomes—that's still being written.
O Pulso
- Over a thousand Frome residents raised nearly £1m and secured £1.2m in social investment to build the UK's largest community-led regeneration project — only to be passed over in a single council vote.
- The announcement landed like a verdict already written: within two minutes, a full press release was circulating, and fifteen minutes later Newcore Capital had issued its own statement, leaving residents to wonder whether the public meeting had ever been anything more than ceremony.
- The room erupted — people shouted 'shame on you' and 'stitch-up', while those who had given five years to Mayday Saxonvale stood in tears, absorbing the speed with which their work had been set aside.
- Newcore Capital, a Soho-based real estate firm, now holds the keys to the site, promising community partnership but offering no specific commitment to affordable housing — the very thing Frome residents had built their entire vision around.
- Local leaders warn that Saxonvale risks becoming another regeneration scheme done to a community rather than with it, as the momentum of years of grassroots organising struggles to find a foothold in a process it no longer controls.
In Frome, a Somerset town long accustomed to charting its own course, more than a thousand residents spent years and nearly a million pounds of their own money building a vision for their town's future — only to have that future handed to a London investment firm by the very council meant to serve them. The rejection of Mayday Saxonvale raises a question as old as civic life itself: when a community organises, invests, and speaks with one voice, who holds the authority to decide what a place becomes? The gap between democratic aspiration and institutional power rarely announces itself so plainly.
More than a thousand residents of Frome had spent years working toward a single goal: transforming a five-hectare brownfield site in their town centre into affordable homes, workspaces, a riverside park, and a lido. They called the project Mayday Saxonvale, raised nearly a million pounds among themselves, and secured £1.2 million from Resonance — the largest investment the social impact fund had ever made. It was shaping up to be the largest community-led regeneration scheme in the United Kingdom.
Then, on a Wednesday evening in September, Somerset Council announced it had chosen someone else. The preferred bidder was Newcore Capital, a real estate investment company based in Soho. The news came at the end of a packed meeting in Frome town hall, where residents had gathered to make final appeals for their vision. When the council named the winner, the room erupted. People shouted 'who?', 'shame on you', and 'stitch-up'. Some who had worked on Mayday for five years were in tears.
What followed deepened the sense of betrayal. Within two minutes of the announcement, a full press release had been issued. Fifteen minutes later, Newcore released its own statement. To many in the room, the timing confirmed what they had feared: the meeting had been theatre, the decision already made.
Town councillor Sara Butler called it a slap in the face. Council leader Fiona Barrows criticised the lack of transparency, arguing the site was too important to Frome to be treated as a routine land sale. Jon Rolls of Resonance put the broader stakes plainly: without local ownership, Saxonvale risked becoming another regeneration scheme done to a community rather than by and with it. 'The people of Frome haven't simply expressed an opinion,' he said. 'They organised behind this vision and invested their own money.'
The council cited uncertainty over Mayday's full funding as its reason for rejecting the bid — a claim the project's leaders disputed. Newcore, for its part, promised to work in partnership with residents and outlined plans for homes, community facilities, and open space. What its statement did not include was any specific commitment to affordable housing — the cornerstone of everything Frome had spent years trying to build.
More than a thousand residents of Frome, a town in Somerset known for its independent spirit, had spent years organizing themselves around a single ambition: to transform a five-hectare brownfield site in their town centre into homes, workspaces, a riverside park, and a lido. They raised nearly a million pounds of their own money to make it happen. The project, called Mayday Saxonvale, was shaping up to be the largest community-led regeneration scheme in the United Kingdom. Then, on a Wednesday evening in September, the Somerset Council announced it had chosen someone else entirely.
The preferred bidder was Newcore Capital, a real estate investment company based in Soho, central London. The announcement came at the end of a packed meeting in Frome town hall, where residents had gathered to make last-minute appeals for their vision. When the council revealed the identity of the successful bidder, the room erupted. People shouted "who?", "shame on you", and "stitch-up". Some of those who had worked on Mayday for more than five years were crying.
The speed of what followed only deepened residents' sense that the outcome had been predetermined. Within two minutes of the council's announcement, a full press release about the deal was issued. Fifteen minutes later, Newcore released its own statement. The timing suggested to many locals that the meeting itself had been little more than theatre—a chance for the council to hear objections it had already decided to ignore.
Sara Butler, a Frome town councillor, called it devastating. "So many people have worked so hard on trying to ensure this site is developed with the best interests of Frome," she said. "It's been a town-wide mission and this is a slap in the face." Fiona Barrows, the leader of the town council, acknowledged that the idea behind Mayday had been straightforward: create homes that local people could actually afford, and places where they could work. She criticized the council's lack of transparency, saying the Saxonvale site was simply too important to Frome to be treated as a routine land sale.
Susie Jenkins Temple, who had pooled resources with friends to back the Mayday project, described the effort as extraordinary. "Across Frome, people reached into their own pockets because they believe this place matters," she said. The residents had not acted on sentiment alone. Mayday had secured £1.2 million from Resonance, a social impact fund, which represented the largest investment Resonance had ever made. The organization had other investors lined up as well. The agreed sale price for the land was thought to be around £3 million.
The council's stated reason for rejecting Mayday was uncertainty about whether the community group had secured full funding for the project. But Paul Oster, an executive director of Mayday Saxonvale, saw it differently. The chance to create the UK's largest community-led regeneration project had been lost, he said. Jon Rolls, head of developing communities at Resonance, framed the stakes more broadly. Without local ownership, he warned, there was a "real danger" that Saxonvale would become another regeneration scheme done to a community rather than by and with it. "The people of Frome haven't simply expressed an opinion," Rolls said. "They organised behind this vision and invested their own money."
Newcore's track record offered little reassurance to skeptics. The company's other projects include an eight-acre site in east London where it plans to build a supermarket, health centre, and childcare facilities alongside 1,047 new homes, and a care home with retirement apartments on a brownfield site in Cambridge. In its statement, Newcore said it was committed to working closely with Frome residents and developing plans "in partnership with the community." The emerging proposals, it said, would likely include a range of new homes, intergenerational accommodation, community facilities with space for local artists, open space, and car parking. What was notably absent from that list was any specific commitment to affordable housing—the cornerstone of what Frome residents had envisioned.
Citações Notáveis
So many people have worked so hard on trying to ensure this site is developed with the best interests of Frome. It's been a town-wide mission and this is a slap in the face.— Sara Butler, Frome town councillor
Without local ownership there was a real danger that Saxonvale would become another regeneration scheme done to a community, rather than by and with that community.— Jon Rolls, head of developing communities at Resonance
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Leia o original em The Guardian ↗