PROJECTS
Project: Mixed-use residential, commercial and retail
Location: Frome, Somerset
Client: Acorn Property Group and Mendip District Council
Services: Transport Planning
A 10-acre brownfield site in the historic town of Frome had been derelict and contaminated for more than a decade. Mendip District Council acquired it in 2018 and partnered with Acorn Property Group to bring it back into use: up to 300 new homes, over a fifth of them affordable, alongside shops, a riverside café, 45,000 sq ft of commercial space for business start-ups and a new public marketplace. The site sat within walking distance of Frome town centre. That proximity was not incidental. It was the ingrained op
Frome’s historic core made conventional transport solutions unworkable. Conservation areas and listed buildings ruled out road widening. The site was also carrying the weight of repeated failure: there had been several previous attempts to develop it, including a supermarket application that fell specifically on traffic grounds. The existing road network, and in particular a series of congested T-junctions at Gorehedge, could not absorb increased car traffic without intervention. The question of whether any scheme could work here was genuinely contested. Access, parking and car ownership each needed to be argued from first principles, with evidence capable of surviving independent scrutiny.
What it produced
Outline planning permission was granted by Mendip District Council in January 2021. The transport argument resolved a problem that had blocked every previous application on the site, including a supermarket scheme refused specifically on traffic grounds. Up to 300 homes, commercial space and riverside public realm were approved on land that had resisted development for over a decade.
“Always on hand to provide guidance on issues as they arose, their sensitive approach and steadfast commitment allowed us to unlock the development potential.”
Luke Cleary | Development Manager | Acorn Property Group
Rather than accepting the congestion at Gorehedge as a fixed constraint, we worked back from the junction itself to understand whether the problem had been properly diagnosed. Previous applications had treated it as given. We found a specific, cost-effective geometry change that previous applicants had not considered. We modelled it, had the modelling independently audited, and it was approved by the Local Highway Authority and their external consultants.
On parking, we followed the thread of narrative the site already offered. Frome town centre sits within walking distance. Services are accessible on foot. The site was one where fewer cars was not merely an acceptable design response: it was the right one, and we had the evidence to argue it. We used ONS 2011 census data to model car ownership by property type across the proposed mix of homes and made the case for a meaningful reduction against the council’s own standards. The streets produced give pedestrians priority and make sustainable travel the natural choice rather than the exception.
Calibro has not only been able to identify and present clear and compelling strategies for large and complex site promotions – ones that don’t just rely on costly infrastructure improvements – but they also take a very proactive and innovative approach in the way they engage with key stakeholders.
