At last week’s Town Matters council meeting the results of this year’s Town Benchmarking exercise were discussed. Every year, students from Frome College, as part of their work experience week and supervised by town council staff, conduct a survey of Frome businesses and users of the town centre to help us understand how they feel about Frome. This helps our thinking in what we can do to assist in the improvement of the area.
These findings are compared with other towns of similar size. Overall, Frome’s businesses and users are much more confident than other towns; for example, the physical appearance, cleanliness and safety of the town are perceived to be much better than the average of similar towns. Of course not everything is perfect and parking and the provision of public transport are seen as negative factors, but business confidence remains good, with 64% of our businesses expecting to increase their turnover. The council will continue to assist local businesses and lobby those authorities who have control of services over which we have no direct influence.
One area of service where the council is very concerned is the proposal to remove the availability of the second Frome fire engine during the day. If you are as worried as we are that capability is being removed during a period of expansion in the town then I urge you to attend the information evening to be held by Frome fire fighters at Frome Town Football Club on 21st August, starting at 7pm. You can then share your views at the official consultation at Frome Library on 29th August 10am-2pm, or online at www.dsfire.gov.uk/SaferTogether
