There was jubilation at the Silk Mill this evening (August 17) after the planning board approved the alternative application for the Frome town centre site, Saxonvale.

After several hours of charged debate, streamed to the crowd in Frome, a motion was suggested for approving the plans in essence and leaving disputed issues to be concluded at a later date - at the very latest by Christmas.

Those issues included the amount of housing included in the plan, which falls short of the 250 that councillors had as a projection, but which could be almost met if plans included in the Mayday offering, for a school on site, were dropped.

One other hugely contentious issue, and one used as part of the recommendation to refuse the plan - an ecology report for the site. Mendip Council was at one stage accused of not playing with a straight bat, when they were told one reason the alternative plan did not have such a report was that they were not allowed to access the site. At several times in the meeting councillors talked of hundreds of emails and calls supporting the plans, which rival that already agreed by Acorn and include employment spaces and what was described by one councillor, as making Frome fit for another 200 years.

Councillors voted that planning details including highways concerns, will be left to be dealt with at another date, and when the announcement was made that, in principal, the rival plan was given the go-head, the prosecco corks started popping.

A full report on at times emotional planning meeting in Shepton Mallet tomorrow on Nub News.