Somerset Council will not openly fight to prevent hundreds of new homes coming to Frome for fear of incurring a legal bill in excess of £400,000.

A public inquiry will be held in July to determine the fate of the Selwood Garden Community (SGC), comprising 1,700 new homes, commercial space, a primary school and other facilities at the southern edge of the town.

Before the government called in the decision in February, the council had been 'minded to refuse' the plans, with its planning committee east stating a list of possible grounds in December 2024 which would have been formalised by planning officers.

But the same committee has now agreed to take a neutral stance at the inquiry – meaning it will offer no evidence against the plans and only contest the level and timing of financial contributions towards local facilities.

Local campaigners begged the council not to take such a stance when the committee convened in Shepton Mallet on Friday morning (March 28).

Dr. Patricia Smith from the Frome and District Civic Society said: "The elephant in the room, which everyone seems to have ignored, is the size of the SGC – and size matters.

"This would be the second-largest development in Somerset; only in Taunton, which has significant transport infrastructure, would you find anything on this scale.

"Quality assurance must be established at the start and, importantly, maintained over time. The proposed design delivery process with SGC is unworkable and frankly bizarre.

"If no evidence is offered against this, that is tantamount to supporting it, as you well know. Given you were minded to refuse this in December before the call-in, it is right for you to oppose it."

Mark Pollock from the Friends of the River Frome said: "In 2024, figures released by the Environment Agency shows there were spills into the river for over 544 hours from 13 sites around the town.

"Sewage spillage into the river is getting worse, not better, and the existing drainage system is already over-capacity.

"Wessex Water's lack of objection and reliance on only one planning condition can give little confidence, given the poor track record over sewage spills into the river. This will be magnified by the impact of multiple developers working on site over a 15-year period.

"The proposed playing field within the riverside will be unusable doing flooding events, which are becoming more frequent and intense."

Joe Hannam Maggs from the Stop SGC campaign group said the consortium bringing forward the plans had not been honest with the council over the huge increase in traffic congestion the new homes would create.

He said: "The applicant is suggesting that 30 per cent of residents will car share, when only six per cent of Frome residents do so now.

"We are looking at 82 per cent more traffic at the AM peak and 91.2 per cent more traffic at the PM peak.

"It's clear that the SGC is simply too big and in the wrong place."

Following the committee's February meeting (just 24 hours after the call-in), Frome Town Council entered into further discussion with Land Value Alliances, which is promoting the SGC application on behalf of the landowners' consortium.

The promoter has agreed to provide the following concessions and additional contributions:

• Funding to upgrade the B3090 The Butts can be redistributed to "other appropriate highways works" in Frome if it is not needed at this location
• Additional contributions towards medical facilities in Frome can be secured as the 500th, 1000th and 1500th homes are delivered – and part of the planned community hub will be marketed for a pharmacy occupier within six months of the hub being constructed
• Affordable housing will be advertised towards people living in Frome or the neighbouring Selwood parish six months before being offered to people living "in a wider radius" of the town
• More than £718,000 will be provided for additional active travel improvement, bus vouchers or car clubs if "transport modal shift targets are not being met"
• The main access roads and spine roads into the commercial spaces must be completed swiftly to allow these spaces to be marketed within three years of construction work beginning
• Money set aside for improvements to Frome Town United Football Academy and Frome Town Rugby Football Club can be recycled into other sports facilities if the clubs do not secure planning permission

Town councillor Steve Tanner said that these additional provisions had tipped the balance, with the town council withdrawing its formal objection to the SGC.

He told the committee: "We had red lines that needed to be addressed, regarding the lack of infrastructure.

"Since the application was last discussed by the committee, we've had the opportunity to discuss these red lines in detail with the applicant, leading us to remove our objections.

"We have a housing crisis and we need more affordable housing. Of course we lament the loss of green spaces, but the government's higher housing targets lead us to believe that this will be approved by the secretary of state.

"If we all work together and hold the developers to these outline plans, we can achieve an exemplary development which can go some way to meeting Frome's housing needs."

Matthew Kendrick from Grassroots Planning (representing the applicant) added: "We genuinely consider this scheme to be exemplary, and we have worked to secure additional contributions since December.

"There is no other site capable of meeting the town's housing needs."

Several councillors urged the council to openly contest the appeal, arguing that the scale of the SGC was disproportionate and would not meet local need.

Cllr Michael Dunk said: "This is a proposal of an unprecedented scale for Mendip, and would result in a disproportionate scale of development for Frome. It will significantly degrade the quality of the local landscape.

"The report is asking us to accept that all the housing gains outweighs all the harms in going against our policies. It does not."

Cllr Shane Collins said: "1,700 houses, 6,000 people and 4,000 cars – it's a 23 per cent increase in population in one hit.

"This will be a car-based development which is completely at odds with our climate change policies and will probably lead to a one-way system being implemented into Frome town centre in the future.

"If ever there was a case of today's solutions being tomorrow's problems, this is it."

Cllr Helen Kay added: "I don't believe in the very simplistic supply and demand model for housing – just building more houses is not going to solve the problem, because developers build out deliberately slowly to keep the prices up.

"Because of how our Homefinder system works, people in Bridgwater or Taunton may get the affordable homes rather than the people in Frome, which will not solved our housing crisis.

"By going neutral, we are just weakly supporting the application."

Cllr Claire Sully warned that local residents would hold councillors' feet to the fire if they did not take a principled stand on these proposals.

She said: "Planning and housebuilding is a political football for the government and it seems they are desperate to score a goal – but it will be an own goal and not help this town.

"We want to solve the housing crisis, but it has to be the right development for the people of Frome.

"We will be judged in the future if we don't stand up for what we believe in."

Alison Blom-Cooper, the council's chief planning officer, warned that if the council actively opposed the development and lost the inquiry, it could liable for legal costs which would be "comfortably above £400,000".

Cllr Ros Wyke said the council needed to take a balanced view of housing growth across the former Mendip area, pointing to Frome's relatively large range of local amenities.

She said: "We need to have a balanced approach to things, treating the whole planning east area evenly rather than responding to the particular pressure of one application or community.

"Frome currently has about 29,000 people and this is for 1,700 homes over 15 years – that's just over 100 homes a year. But the benefits to Frome will be quite considerable, and you have the railway station and the bypass, which Wells doesn't have."

Cllr Susannah Hart said that actively fighting the appeal "could lead to the financial ruin of the council", with legal costs taking money away from key services.

She said: "We are ultimately responsible to the public not to waste their money.

"Being part of any litigation is expensive. The £400,000 stated is a minimum cost – it could escalate to £1m, and that is money down the drain.

"Unfortunately in life, sometimes you have to choose the least worst option. Let us all do the sensible thing and take a neutral stance."

After more than two hours of debate, the committee voted to take a neutral stance at the inquiry by eight votes to three, with one abstention.

Planning inspector Stephen Normington indicated in early-March that the inquiry will be set for 12 days, beginning on July 29, and will include at least one site visit.