The Mayor of Frome, Mark Dorrington has been talking to Nub News about the town, the future - and which is his favourite pub.

Mark works hard on joining up all parts of Frome to make it an all encompassing community environment, and he has insight into the new versus the old model, being schooled here, but then moving away, first to Hong Kong and then London, before returning.

He said: "I'm old Frome, people say that they are Old Frome or New Frome, but because I have been away I have a foot in both camps.

"We have pockets of deprivation and we have pockets of wealth and we have a lot of people in the middle and I want to make sure we reach everybody."

In addition to being involved in the local history groups, Mark is a citizens advice volunteer which has say allows him to come into contact with all aspects of the town Frome.

He said: "The big success story with us is retail being completely independent, last time I looked there are no vacant premises in Frome which is probably unique in most towns certainly of this size, because we have not relied on the big chains, and on the standard look to a High Street. We have made had to make Frome a bit different.

"In the early 80s Frome was on its knees - the big industry had left and the shops followed. Catherine Hill was derelict in places. By the hard work of the town we have attracted small businesses and small retailers."

But the Mayor, who will step down in May, said there is a gap when small, perhaps just one-person businesses in Frome, the so-called kitchen tablers, want to expand.

advertisement

He said: " Those premises are few and far between, our industrial sites are full up, there is very little vacancy. So in any new development we are looking at we are making sure we have employment space. We have an input into the Saxondale development in the town and one thing we are stressing is employment, we want mixed use there. "

Mark is formerly a pupil at Frome College, he went when it was a grammar school, and he is full of praise for his alma mater: "Frome College really picked itself up, we have a really enthusiastic head in Emma Reynolds, she is very welcoming to new ideas.I am always over impressed by what they are achieving there. They do this amazing thing, the Year 10 interviews, it is incredible, I would urge anyone in the town to go along and help these youngsters for many of them it is their first proper interview for a job. "

Finally where does Mark go for some down time? Does he get any time to relax?

He said, a bit tongue in cheek: " I will be in the Three Swans later on. I host their quiz night once a month, so I am very fond of it. It is the best pub !

"Not many years ago they had a bouncer on the door throwing people in. It's almost like an informal surgery for me, people do know who I am, you are never off duty as the mayor and people come up to me and talk about what the problems are and I am very happy to do that, as long as people know I do need a day off now and again."