Letter to the Somerset Standard 4th September 2006
Letters to the Editor
Frome & Somerset Standard
23A Market Place
Frome
Somerset
BA11 1AN
Dear Sir,
Thank you for the coverage you have given to recent events at the Stonewall Manor development site.
We think the tactics used by the developers Stonewall Manor Ltd (NB: no connection with our good neighbours at Stonewall Manor itself) have been even more underhand than your article conveyed, and we want Frome to know what we are up against.
The destruction of mature orchard trees and one of the magnificent beeches of Lower Keyford included repeated cut-and-run raids by workmen in the early hours of a Bank Holiday weekend. The police, whom we had called, were so concerned at the lack of safety precautions and risk to neighbouring properties that they brought work to a halt while they tried to contact professional tree surgeons to make the damaged beech safe. It finally fell of its own accord, unattended.
Also in your report the developers’ representative, Mr Sneddon, revealed the extent of their cynicism when in the one breath he said, “The council said they would refuse [the development] because of the preservation of the tree” (which he admits was the most important on the site), and in the next, “We’ve eliminated a reason for the refusal.” This brutal logic indicates that Stonewall Manor Ltd has no regard for the importance of fine old trees, and even less for the views and wishes of local elected members and people. To them, trees are merely obstacles on the road to profit; to us they are part of our community’s heritage. While we cannot bring back what this company has destroyed, we can make sure that its next planning application gets very close examination. Any more plans for the same kind of cramped, crowded, ill-positioned and incongruous buildings as were proposed in the first application will be strongly contested.
As the late John Betjeman observed, “We’ve all got places we think of as home. Bends in a road. A bit of a street. A familiar view. And it’s damnable that developers, who don’t care a bit about us and don’t come from where we live, should take it away.”
We urge your readers to join us in safeguarding one of our precious local communities before any further damage is done. We are urgently organising a body of people to respond to the expected planning application, and would appreciate any offers of help from the people of Frome. POLKA can be contacted at info@polkafrome.co.uk.
Yours faithfully,
POLKA members
