Chair’s reflections – Annual Council Meeting 2026 

By Cllr Sara Butler 

A busy agenda for the May 2026 Frome Town Council meeting meant an early start at 6.30pm, beginning with the election of the council’s Chair and Deputy Chair. As in 2025/26, councillors elected Cllr Fiona Barrows as FTC’s Leader and Chair, with the Deputy Chair role taken on by Cllr Mark Dorrington, who will take on the civic elements of the chair’s role and take over from Cllr Anita Collier as Mayor of Frome. The current cohort of councillors will complete their term in May 2027, so this election marks the last time they will choose chairs and committee members from their number. 

We took questions from the public and there was a lively discussion about how we can ensure residents have the chance to feed into discussion and decisions, using platforms like My Frome, in-person events and a range of ways for people to be heard, so that even if coming to a council meeting isn’t for you, you can tell us what you think, in a way that works for you. 

As usual at the annual meeting, councillors reviewed and adopted the council’s Standing Orders and Councillor Code of Conduct for the coming year. These are the rules and standards that guide how we operate as a council, and reviewing them annually helps ensure they remain up to date and reflect current legislation and best practice. 

Another key part of the evening was agreeing committee memberships for our Operations and Assets, Community and Place and Grants committees, appointing committee chairs and confirming lead councillor roles for the year ahead.  

We also approved the continuation of the service level agreement for the town centre CCTV system. Frome Town Council pays for 10 CCTV cameras in the town centre, taken on through devolution in 2024, while Somerset Council provides the monitoring service. These cameras play an important role in supporting public confidence and providing evidence to the police when needed. Councillors agreed to keep the ten cameras (there are actually 13, but three in Victoria park are owned and operated by the police), with the option to review the number and location of Frome’s cameras at any point. 

Business Manager Sarah Williams then took us through the year end finance report and proposed an increase the in FTC’s amount of General Reserves, which was approved by majority. 

Following the end of funding for the five-year Green and Healthy Frome programme in March, councillors were asked to consider next steps for a fleet of e-bikes that proved popular as part of the Cycle Together project. Frome Community Bike Project (FCBP) already do fantastic work getting people up and running on two wheels and FTC agreed to pass on 10 of the bikes to them to be hired by residents and maintained and serviced by FCBP, ensuring continued use. 

Last but not least, a discussion about the management of Frome Weekly Markets. FTC took over the markets as part of devolution and ran them in house initially, before outsourcing the day-to-day running to the team behind the Frome Independent. It’s now time to consider a longer-term solution and Cllr Nick Dove presented the rationale for a new Market Coordinator role, working four days a week, to run the Wednesday and Saturday markets, liaise with stallholders and promote and develop the markets for the benefit of Frome. Councillors voted in favour by majority to proceed. 

The next council meeting is on 10 June and will be at The Key Centre on Feltham Lane, up on the Mount.

Find out more and read the papers from next week.

Watch the 27 May meeting on our YouTube channel.