Earlier in June, together with county councillor Linda Oliver and town councillor Nick White, I met the site managers of the new development of the shops and flats development on Forest Road, Stonebridge to get a briefing about the construction project and ask questions. Planning permission was granted by Mendip District Council in January for the expansion of the Tesco Express, the creation of a new small shop and the building of 3 new flats above the enlarged Tesco. The original submitted plans were amended twice, including to avoid a loss of car parking spaces, include more tree planting, provide more appropriate site lighting, and improve the architectural design, to address objections I raised with the applicants from residents, the Town Council and Frome Civic Society. The application and decision can be found here http://publicaccess.mendip.gov.uk/online-applications/ (reference 2014/0970). See my previous news on this in a Previous article. At the briefing we learned the following:

On Monday 22 June, demolition and construction work started in earnest, and will continue in phases until December.

The senior site manager is Julian Kite, Uplands Construction, who can be contacted on 07768 179743, 0845 111 1112 or Julian.kyte@uplandsconstruction.co.uk Please contact Julian on any specific site issues.

Uplands Construction will register the site under the Considerate Constructors Scheme, and will therefore abide by the Code of Considerate Practice which commits them to care about site appearance, respect the community, protect the environment, secure everyone’s safety and value their workforce (see http://www.ccscheme.org.uk/). Uplands plan to write a ‘good neighbour’ letter to all the neighbours to provide their contact details.

The construction site will be securely hoarded and fenced, with two cabins providing site office and welfare facilities within the compound. There will be no need for any road closures for any utility works. We were assured that HGVs will be directed to/from the site via Brunel Way and Clink road, (avoiding Forest Road and the traffic-calmed section of Stonebridge Drive) and that construction staff will be asked to be considerate in parking off-site. This will need keeping an eye on.

We need to emphasise that the other shops – The Little Flower Shop, Codswallop, and Lloyds Pharmacy, are open as usual. Half the car park will remain open for shoppers throughout.

Tesco should be reopening in early December. The new small shop created in between Tesco and Codswallop will be a Barnados charity shop. The planning permission also allowed Lloyds to expand their shop, but this is not being done yet.

A drainage issue was raised in relation to a downstream pipe, and I have met with MDC’s Drainage Engineer to take up the issue at Mendip and with Wessex Water.

The car park signage will be replaced, and a new Community Noticeboard will also be put in (location is being agreed with the Town Council, after I pushed for this) to provide useful information to local residents in future. Five trees along Stonebridge Drive and behind the shops were removed to facilitate the development, and trees at the back will need to be pruned, but seven new trees will be planted to replace those lost.

I am pleased that a temporary shop service is now being provided by the Tuck Shop’s ice cream van, parked next to the site every morning from 7.00 – 10.00am. This provides basics (milk, bread, newspapers, and ice cream, etc.) for residents who cannot or do not want to travel long distances to the nearest shops at McColls (Rodden Road), Tuck Shop (St Johns Road) and Fromefield Post Office, or further afield. Residents can also place home delivery orders at the van or in the Tuck Shop (01373 228081). Tesco were unable to provide a temporary cabin shop for local residents (I did ask).

Please let me and the other ward councillors know if there are any issues arising.

Thanks,

Adam Boyden, Mendip District Councillor, Frome College ward (cllr.boyden@mendip.gov.uk, 07809 284817)