Frome residents win five-year battle for community-led housing project

Mayday Saxonvale scheme is given the go-ahead after an extraordinary meeting of town council executive

Residents of a renegade" Somerset market town have won their battle to create an innovative 5-hectare (12-acre) community-led development that includes homes, workspaces and a lido, after county councillors agreed to sell a large brownfield site to the not-for-profit social enterprise behind the project.

The Mayday Saxonvale scheme in Frome, which hundreds of residents have spent five years fighting for, also features two public squares, and a community-owned boutique hotel and cafe.