Frome: Crafting ‘Independent’ Identities in the ‘Home’ of Localism?

This chapter introduces our case study of the market town of Frome in Somerset, England and sets out to explain why the town is of particular import to the study of sustainability transitions. In the words of one respondent interviewed as part of this research journey, Frome benefits from a “burgeoning environmental cluster”. How this cluster came together and what binds it is important in order to understand the nature of the town’s environmental, relocalised initiatives and the organisations that support it, notably whether a heartfelt concern for the environment of some environmentally-minded individuals can be translated into the fabric of local government. Additionally, we explore how sustainability pursuits were framed under an 'independent banner' and what this reveals about the politics of transitions. We reflect on the musing by Peter Macfadyen, co-founder of Frome's independent group (the Independents for Frome, IfF) that has controlled the town council since 2011 has pondered, that it might be that green policy is more acceptable by local residents if it emanates from non-party-political 'Independent' councillors than 'green' politicians (such as members of the Green Party). Frome’s innovative mix of alternative governance arrangements, the strong links to the Transition (town) movement through the town's local Transition Initiative (Sustainable Frome), its radical (non-)party-political agenda, and the town council’s determination to encourage sustainable, relocalised development make it an extremely relevant case study to the study of sustainability transitions. We seek to reveal the tools, strategies and transition arenas that were employed by actors in Frome to agitate transitions towards alternative development models. In this chapter, we introduce some of IfF's objectives for radical action in the town and how this sought to draw upon and reinvent the role of an English market town into an emblem of the New Economy and local political innovation. We also begin to set the scene for how the promise of localism helped to frame and deliver on these goals and chart key developments in the town that underpin the events that we will discuss in more detail in the following chapters.