South Norfolk Council plans to oppose its inspector's cuts to village housing sites, including Barford and Barnham Broom. Councillors discuss it on Tuesday.
South Norfolk Council plans to object to seven of the ten village housing sites its planning inspector wants to delete. Two of them are in Barford and one in Barnham Broom, all about four miles from Wymondham.
The objections are in a draft letter to the inspector, published with the agenda for Tuesday’s Planning and Economic Growth Committee. The letter is dated 30 September, the day after the meeting.
It concerns the South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan. That plan must find sites for at least 1,200 homes across the district’s villages.
What the council is objecting to
Inspector David Reed set out his cuts in a letter on 23 March. His proposed changes went out to public consultation on 14 September.
The council’s report says officers think several changes “go further than is required”. The draft letter objects to deleting these allocations:
- Barford BAR2 (40 homes). The inspector doubted it would be delivered. The council says the promised new village hall justifies keeping it.
- Barnham Broom BB1 (40 homes). The council says Norfolk County Council, as highway authority, has always held that a junction upgrade on this land is needed before any more large-scale building in that part of the village.
- Barford BAR1 (19 homes), a site that includes a former filling station. The council says Barford has had no new allocated development completed “for over three decades”.
- Bergh Apton BAP1 (25 homes), a brownfield site.
- Rockland St Mary ROC1 (25 homes). The council says Historic England did not object to it.
- Seething SEE1 (12 homes) and Burgh St Peter BUR1 (12 homes).
It also objects to halving the Brooke allocation to 25 homes. It calls Brooke “possibly the most sustainable settlement” in the plan.
The homes figures are the inspector’s, from his March letter. Together the seven sites and the lost half of Brooke come to 198 homes.
The three cuts it accepts
The council will not fight three deletions:
- Wicklewood WIC1 (40 homes). The report says it has “perhaps the most significant landscape impacts” of all the sites. A smaller site north of the primary school stays in the plan.
- Ashwellthorpe ASH1 (15 homes). The land changed hands during the examination and the new owner has not responded.
- Broome BRM1 (12 homes).
The council says the plan has moved away from its original aim of many small sites of about 25 homes. That is one reason it gives for accepting these three.
Spooner Row: a flood-risk objection
Spooner Row is about three miles south-west of Wymondham. The inspector’s changes enlarge the site west of Bunwell Road to about 45 homes.
The council does not object to 45 homes there. But it objects to adding extra land “identified as being at risk of flooding” to the allocation. The report says that land was included mainly to deal with nutrient neutrality, and that there are other ways to do that.
Why it matters
If the inspector reinstates any of the sites, the council wants to keep the extra homes he has added elsewhere as well. The report gives three reasons:
- it makes the plan more robust
- Greater Norwich cannot currently show a five-year supply of housing land
- the government’s standard method is raising South Norfolk’s housing target
The report says planned sites are better than “further speculative applications”. Without a five-year land supply, developers find it easier to win permission on sites that are not in any plan.
The inspector has the final say on what goes into his report. The council then decides whether to adopt the plan.
What it means for you
- Watch the meeting: Tuesday 29 September at 10am, Lower Yare room, Horizon Centre, Peachman Way, Norwich NR7 0WF. Councillors will comment on the draft. The final letter is then agreed with the portfolio holder for planning, so its wording may change.
- Have your own say: the consultation on the inspector’s changes closes at 5pm on Monday 26 October. Comment through the council’s consultation portal. You can only comment on the proposed changes, and only on whether the plan is legally compliant and sound.
- Live near one of these sites? Our earlier report lists every site that grew in the inspector’s changes, and our 7 September report lists every cut.
- Follow planning in your parish: see our Wymondham planning news page.
Have your say