Public offered shares to help redevelop site

A social enterprise is to launch a community share offer to raise the money it needs to buy and redevelop a 12-acre site.

Mayday Saxonvale plans to build the UK's first "community-led masterplan" in Saxonvale, a derelict brownfield site in Frome, Somerset, and promises to reinvest profits back into the community.

Somerset Council said it withdrew its offer to exclusively sell the land to the group, when it failed to complete the sale because of a lack of funds, despite "several" extensions to a deadline.

Mayday Saxonvale's chair, Brigid Clarke, said: "Unless we act now, Saxonvale will be bought by a private, profit-led development in an open market sale and any profits will leave Frome."

"This is an extremely exciting opportunity and we are inviting you, our community, to become co-owners of Saxonvale with us," she added.

Clarke continued: "Mayday's community share offer will help ensure we keep value here within our town and our community. We have one chance to buy this land and protect this place we all call home. This is real, people-powered development and a once-in-a-generation chance to protect and shape the future of our town, our Saxonvale."

The minimum amount people are invited to invest is £250.

In return, they will get a vote in decision-making and a say in the long-term future of the site, which has lain derelict for decades and been the subject of several failed regeneration plans.

Mayday Saxonvale has secured £1.2m from the Resonance Community Developers Fund to support its new bid to Somerset Council.

Its plan includes building more than 260 homes, of which at least 30% would be affordable.

There will also be employment space and community assets, which include a lido.

Jon Rolls, head of developing communities at Resonance, said the social impact fund "supports communities to own and develop assets in their local neighbourhoods because we believe this helps communities to be more sustainable and resilient".

He added: "We hope that the community gets behind this once-in-a-lifetime chance to steer the regeneration of Frome."

At a meeting in October, Somerset Council's ruling executive voted to pull out of a deal to exclusively sell the site to Mayday Saxonvale after giving the social enterprise nine months to find the money to buy it.

The authority said it intended to put the site back on the open market.

This means it will be able to work with a different developer or negotiate a new deal with Mayday Saxonvale, which plans to launch its community share offer in late January.

Somerset Council said it was "committed" to helping the site get developed as part of "this most important opportunity to enhance Frome town centre this century".

"We have been working with Mayday Saxonvale Developments Limited (Mayday) for more than 18 months seeking to agree a disposal of the site with an initial deadline to complete a sale of 31 March 2025," the council added.

"Due to the inability of Mayday to provide proof of funds, several extensions of this deadline were agreed, seeking to overcome these difficulties. However, Mayday failed to provide the necessary assurances.

"The Council's Executive, at a public meeting in Frome Town Hall on the 24 October 2025, agreed to remove exclusivity rights to Mayday as the only organisation able to discuss development proposals, and a draft contract was withdrawn.

"This decision has opened the opportunity for other potential purchasers to develop the site, in addition to any Mayday bid.

"For clarity, this will be an open market disposal, based purely on best consideration. Marketing of the site is expected to begin within four to six weeks."

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