Summary
In July 2016, a draft Byelaw was proposed to the Frome Town Council to establish rights and legal personhood for the Frome River and the Rodden Meadow. This project was first brought the Town Council in July 2016 and it was agreed that a draft bye law to provide rights to the Rover Frome should be progressed and brought back to the committee for approval.
The proposed Rodden Meadow and River Frome Community Ecological Governance Byelaw states that “Frome’s welfare is inextricably bound up with the health and welfare of its natural ecosystems and local ecological issues cannot be separated from their broader context”. It further states that the Town Council “believes that the future sustainability of our ecology lies in reframing our relationship as part of nature” and the Council “is committed to encouraging local residents to take a proactive role in protecting local ecosystems through community ecological governance”.
The draft Byelaw states: (pg 4)
The human and natural communities of Frome have the right to access a sustainable supply of clean and unpolluted water drawn from natural water cycles.
The River shall have the right to exist, the right to natural water supply, the right to natural flows and sustainable recharge sufficient to protect habitat for native flora and fauna, the right to maintain the functionality of the water cycle in the quantity and quality needed to sustain and restore a thriving healthy ecosystem in all its forms, the right to flourish and thrive and the right to timely and effective restoration.
Rodden Meadow shall have the right to exist, thrive, regenerate, and evolve, and the right to restoration to high or good ecological status. This includes, but is not limited to, the right to provide and protect flourishing habitat for native flora and fauna.
The Frome Town Council and the non-profit Friends of the River Frome are to act as guardians of the river and meadow.
The bylaw was turned down in 2020.
Involved Organizations
Related Initiatives
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2026. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/frome-river-and-rodden-meadow/.
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