Frome Town Council has set a budget for its part of the council tax with an increase of 3.68 per cent.

Councillors were told there would be a scaling up of work projects for 2022/23 including pushing ahead with the Safer School Streets programme and plans for town-wide events in the coming year including a cycling festival.

The overall mission statement included making Frome: " A thriving local economy."

In response to what were described as " Growing development pressures" with a raft of new housing plans including Selwood Garden Village, which could see 1,700 new homes built on the edge of Frome by 2036, the Town Hall will also hiring a new member of staff on a two year contract.

All the plans and proposed work programmes can be checked in detail by clicking HERE : the FTC site

The proposed precept of £1,870,628 represents an increase of 13p a week on the current year for Band D properties, although the council was informed that 76 percent of households in Frome will pay less. The council was also told that annual income from renting out the Town Hall rooms and spaces is around £70,000 and this has fallen since We Hear You moved out to their new office space on Frome's North Parade. The meeting of Frome Town Council heard that the budget set would mean that they hoped to fulfil on a promise for " Ambitious, Radical and Innovative Projects" in the coming year. Although the Town Clerk, Paul Wynne, acknowledged that with local elections coming up and changes to the council structure across Somerset on the cards, nothing proposed in the works planning was cast in stone. Councillors later discussed plans for the Market Place works now in phase 3, which were paused in May 2021 for further consultations. They were warned that while the budget for this next stage of work was originally £15,500, since then there has been a redesign of the layout of the planters and seating. The meeting heard that : "From the original budget of £15,500, £4000 has been spent..... he remaining budget is £11, 500 .... and so to proceed requires an additional contingency sum of £17,150. " The Market Place changes have not been universally welcomed since they began nearly two years ago, with some improvements first beginning back in August 2017. You can read one of the reports from a Frome Town Council meeting on the plans by clicking HERE : news from the Town Council itself in March 2021. Meantime the metal signs of St Aldhelm, which were on the railings removed when the Market Place was re-configured are, the meeting was told, being held in safe keeping by the town rangers with a suggestion that they could be put back into the town with one going into Victoria Park and one put on the wall at the Black Swan Arts Centre. In other news : :The Post Office in The Westway is still expected to close at the end of February

:Councillors were reminded that the Frome Library will close for six weeks from the end of January

:There is no news on any of the empty shops in The Westway being filled.