TECHNICAL WORK - recreation
Frome is currently provided with a diverse range of parks, such as The Old Showfield, Rodden Meadow and Victoria Park. Our qualitative analysis suggests that the primary deficiency within the town that needs addressing is for the demand for sports pitches.
The quantitative assessment has identified that the south of the town is not as well provided as the rest of the settlement. Our strategy has been to seek to address this imbalance and deliver large areas of publicly accessible open space that will provide features that have been successful in other parts of the town.
Accordingly, the key recreational features that the proposals will deliver include:
• Meadow parkland alongside the River Frome which will accommodate much needed playing pitches;
• A more formal central park;
• An extensive network of new play areas of varying sizes, linked together via the proposed active travel network of cycle and footways. This will give all new residents a place for children close to where they live, while also allowing easy access for existing residents to this network;
• Allotments, community orchards and foraging woodland to promote self-sufficiency and home-grown food consumption; and
• A further network of open space that will be managed for biodiversity, health and educational benefits – much of which will be stitched together through the provision of a circular active travel route with ‘trim trail’ type activity equipment.