Category: Local Plans

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Yare Valley Parkway in new Green Strategy

In the past year or so, representatives from the Yare Valley Society have participated in consultations and workshops to guide the formulation of a new updated Green Infrastructure Strategy for Greater Norwich for up to 2038. The Greater Norwich Growth Board has now approved the Strategy and this month YVS representatives attended its official launch at the Sainsbury Centre at UEA.

UEA Iris has a visitor Photo: Rachel Taylor

The Strategy focuses on “delivering multiple benefits: nature-rich places, active and healthy communities, thriving economies, improved water management, and resilient climate-positive environments. … [It is] … a significant milestone, which paves the way for a greener, more connected Greater Norwich.”

For an overall view of the entire Strategy go to Greater Norwich Green Infrastructure Strategy Story Map.

You can explore the hoped for outcomes of the Strategy by going to the Strategy Documents and selecting the Strategic Delivery Plan 2025-2030 and look at the Proposed Strategic Green Infrastructure Initiatives in its Delivery Programme.

This news item will focus on the initiatives that relate to the key role the Yare Valley has in the Strategy as a Strategic Green Infrastructure (GI) Corridor.

Reproduced by kind permission of the Greater Norwich Growth Board

The Yare Valley Society has long pressed for the Valley Corridor to be regarded as a single entity in planning, and this long held vision is promoted in the “Southern Norwich Yare Valley Parkway” initiative. The initiative will  “encourage projects that support development of a major linear park connecting a potential new country park at Bawburgh and Colney Lakes west of Norwich with Whitlingham Country Park to the east, including completion of the Yare Valley Walk and improved links to the city centre, as well as potential links to the Wensum Corridor in Norwich and to the west, and restoration of floodplain fen habitats and riparian woodland along the river corridor”

Other initiatives indicate how the Parkway is to be embedded in the wider green infrastructure.

The Parkway will be linked to the “Norwich Green Grid Corridors” initiative. The initiative will “encourage projects that support enhancement of Green Grid Corridors within the densely built-up Norwich Urban Area, creating a strong and multifunctional green network connecting Norwich to the wider strategic GI network – through access improvements, including new/enhanced green spaces and waterside access, urban greening, food growing spaces, protecting and enhancing wildlife sites, and enhancing the City’s landscape setting (including wooded valley sides and ridgelines in particular)”

The Parkway will also link via green corridors to the Wensum Valley, to the surrounding country towards Wymondham and towards the Waveney Valley Strategic Green infrastructure corridor.

The “South Norwich to the Waveney Valley” initiative will “encourage projects that support enhancement of the Boudicca Way between Norwich and Diss including as access improvements and creating new circular walks linked to the Norfolk Trails network to align with the Norfolk Access Improvement Plan 2019–2029, and improved connectivity and enhancement of hedgerows and woodland habitats.”

The South-West Norwich to Wymondham will “encourage projects that support enhancement of the Strategic GI Corridor linking South-West Norwich with Wymondham including new and improved accessible greenspace, public rights of way network improvements and new greenways, pond restoration/creation, and expanding, strengthening and linking woodland, grassland and hedgerows”

These corridors are also intended to connect the Parkway to the existing Country Park of Ladybelt and to a potential new country park southeast of Norwich. The Parkway itself would provide a link between the existing Whitlingham Country Park and the proposed Bawburgh/Colney Lakes Country Park.

The Potential New Country Parks initiative will “encourage projects for the creation of new country parks potentially located to the west of Norwich at Bawburgh/Colney Lakes, to the south east of Norwich in the Caistor St Edmund area (focused around High Ash Farm/Venta Icenorum Roman Settlement) and to the north-east of Norwich.

These new county parks would provide additional larger-scale accessible greenspace to meet the needs of a growing population. They would also provide Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace to address recreational impacts from visitor pressures of new development on wildlife sites protected under the Habitat Regulations in line with the Norfolk Green Infrastructure & Recreational Impact Avoidance and Mitigation Strategy”

Finally blue space has not been forgotten, of particular relevance to Bawburgh Lakes is the Blue Spaces initiative which will “encourage projects for the creation and enhancement of blue spaces, such as the restoration of gravel pits within river valleys to provide nature-rich wetland habitats and opportunities for access and water-focused leisure activities”

So far so good, and the Yare Valley Society welcomes the new Green Strategy as providing a clear vision for the future. Its success as a Strategy will depend partly on the funding available and partly on how much it becomes an integral part of the thinking for the planning and the policies of all the local authorities of the Greater Norwich Growth Board area.

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Proposed building development on Colney Hall Estate in the Yare Valley

The Colney Hall estate lies to the south of Bawburgh Lakes and west of Bowthorpe Southern Park. It is a key contributor to the landscape character and biodiversity of the Valley. Access to the estate is from the B1108 Watton Road.

An outline planning application for part of the Estate, with all matters reserved except access, has been submitted to South Norfolk District Council for a retirement living community of up to 210 extra care units with associated communal facilities, a 20 bed care home, an Innovation Centre to include; academic spaces, flexible office/ research and development spaces and administration offices and 20 student resident 6-bed flats and all matters reserved except for access.

Details of the development can be found at South Norfolk Planning by searching under reference 2022/1547.

A good start point is under the documents tab: Landscape & visual appraisal.

This is a major development on an environmentally sensitive site in the Yare Valley. The site lies outside of the areas approved for development in the Greater Norwich Local Plan. South Norfolk District Council Policies are also in force that are intended to safeguard the green landscape around Norwich, in particular Policy DM 4.5 Landscape Character and River Valleys, and Policy DM 4.6 Landscape Setting.

The Yare Valley Society committee is seriously concerned about this threat to build on the green space of the valley. The development can expect to impact on the visual landscape and biodiversity of the valley, and the effectiveness of the valley corridor in mitigating the effects of climate change (e.g. by reducing flooding downstream).

More about the development can be found in the YVS October 2022 Newsletter.

Please add your voice to that of the Yare Valley Society by writing in to South Norfolk District Council Planning Department giving your own personal view on this proposed development in the green space of the Valley.

Update: Technically the deadline for responses has now passed, but the South Norfolk Planning Department have assured YVS that comments will continue to be accepted up to the time of determination of the application. Please submit your comments ASAP.

Information about Outline Planning Applications

This is an outline planning application with all matters reserved except access. Applications of this kind can be used as a way of establishing the principle of development on a site, without committing to the precise nature of the development.

If Outline Planning Permission is granted further detail of the reserved matters must be agreed at a later stage. This means detail in the application could change, including the development’s appearance, landscaping, layout and scale. For more information see the National Planning Portal at

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/planning/planning-applications/consent-types/outline-planning-consent.

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Time to respond to McCarthy Stone Phase 3 Planning Application!

It would have been nice to report the latest planning application for the McCarthy Stone development on Bluebell Road was a model of best practice development in an ecological sensitive area. Unfortunately the proposals in the application are far from such a model.

Foreground Phase 2 development, background (beyond fence) Phase 3 site

On a first look through the application, some concerns are:

Dwelling Density

The high dwelling density of the development and its design will have a serious visual impact on the landscape of the valley and will degrade environmental assets within and adjacent to the site. The high dwelling density should be reduced.

Policy R42 of the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP) envisaged the number of dwellings for the whole of the Bartram’s Site as being “… in the region of 120 dwellings. This figure is based on an assumption that the site will be developed mainly at low densities to ensure that impact on the landscape is minimised”. The GNLP aim was to “minimise impact on the landscape of the Yare Valley and important views”, and for the development to “protect and enhance environmental assets within and adjacent to the site”.

McCarthy and Stone in their latest Phase 3 application are proposing to build 100 dwellings in Phase 3 alone. These will be added to those of Phase 1 (61) and Phase 2 (50) resulting in a total of 211, almost double the number of 120 envisaged in the GNLP. These high densities can be expected to have a detrimental effect on the environment, both visually and ecologically. The proposals breach seriously the dwelling density safeguard of the GNLP.

Location, size and design of Infiltration “Pond”

(N.B. “Pond” is something of a misnomer here, since for much of the time it can be expected to be dry. Basin might be a better name)

The Public Access green space that formed part of Phase 2, should not be degraded by a the insertion of a large infiltration basin. Any such basin should be incorporated within the original site area for phase 3.

While accepting that that an infiltration basin is necessary to reduce runoff into the river and limit flooding downstream, little attention seems to be given to reducing the basin size by a greater use of water permeable surfaces of drives, parking areas etc., and by use of rainwater harvesting within the site. Further reduction in runoff could be achieved by reducing the dwelling density, by retaining more of the existing vegetation, and by increasing the area of planted green space in the proposals. At the same time the site’s ecology would be improved.

Little indication is given of the design of the “Pond”. Properly designed infiltration basins can be made available for public access, and can be planted with trees, shrubs and other plants, improving their visual appearance and providing habitats for wildlife.

Many mature and semi-mature trees will be removed from the site

Ecological Gain

The UK biodiversity is generally acknowledged as being in catastrophic decline. More needs to be done on this site to enhance biodiversity and provide some “ecological gain”

McCarthy Stone’s own Ecological Report makes a number of recommendations for ecological enhancement. These include “Removal of existing trees on site should be avoided were possible” and “Removal of the existing hedgerows on the site should be avoided where possible and kept to a minimum if unavoidable” The proposals include the removal of most of the relatively mature trees and shrubs in contradiction of Ecological Report’s recommendations. The site tree survey suggests that many trees are not perfect specimens, but they are established, (important in drought conditions), and considerably more mature than any that are likely to be planted as part of the development.

Please take a critical look at and respond to the plans at https://planning.norwich.gov.uk, using application number 22/00298/F and selecting the Documents tab. The Layout Plan, Tree Survey and Ecological Report are good start points. Comment by 24th August 2022.

Your comment is essential if these proposals are to be improved.

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Yare Valley Society declares GNLP unsound

The Yare Valley Society is objecting to the GNLP on the grounds of the Plan being unsound in respect of two of its policies:

Policy GNLP0133DR: Land between Suffolk Walk and Bluebell Road

Policy GNLP0133-E: Land at the UEA Grounds Depot Site, Bluebell Road University of East Anglia.

See Consultations page for more details.

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Next Phase of Local Plan Consultations

The Greater Norwich Local Plan will go forward for a six week Regulation 19 publication period, which will start at 09.00 on Monday 1 February 2021 and close at 17.00 on Monday 15 March 2021.  No representations will be accepted outside of this period. See Consultations.

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Widespread opposition to Government White Paper Proposals

A big thank you to all who responded to the Yare Valley Society call to respond to the Government’s White Paper “Planning for the Future” Consultation. It was not an easy undertaking. The consultation ended on 29 October.

Another thank you if your added your name to the CPRE (Council for the Preservation of Rural England) petition against some of the key proposals.

The YVS committee saw the government’s proposals as a major attack on local democracy and a threat to the ability of the YVS and its members to safeguard the green space of the Yare Valley in the future.

We are not alone.

On 8th December the CPRE with other campaigners headed to Westminster, to hand in 310,265 signatures calling for the government to stop its “disastrous plans” to change our planning laws.

The CPRE writes:

“We commissioned a poll of MPs and found that over half of Conservative MPs weren’t happy with the proposals – the same proposals that had come from their own party! So it came as no surprise to us to see a fiery debate in the House of Commons where 46 MPs spoke out against the plans – and even more wanted to, but the debate simply ran out of time.

Of these 46 MPs publicly voicing their unhappiness with the suggested changes, a huge 33 were from the Conservative Party – including former Prime Minister Theresa May. The issues that they were raising were just as we’ve been saying for many months: that the plans would lead to building on green spaces near to where people live (the very local green spaces that have been so important to so many of us during the pandemic year); that fewer homes that people could actually afford to live in would be built; and that the chances for people to get involved in shaping the future of where they live would be eroded.

And it’s not just the government’s own MPs who have problems with the plans. Organisations from across the environmental, housing and planning sectors have come together to say a big NO to the existing proposals. We were one of more than 30 groups who sent a letter to the Prime Minister warning of the disastrous impacts on nature and people if he dismantled the planning system.”

YVS will be looking for a positive response from the government to address the concerns raised. If it fails to do so YVS will be asking members to take action again.

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Yare Valley Society responds to “Planning for the Future”

The Yare Valley Society response to the consultation on the Government’s White Paper on the future of Planning can now be read on the Consultation Page.

Do not leave it to the Society alone. Please make your personal response to the consultation. More information on how to do this is on the Consultation Page.

Don’t forget to sign the Council for the Protection of Rural England’s (CPRE’s) petition. 

 

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CPRE says “Don’t let the government deregulate planning”

Sign the Petition

The Council for the Protection of Rural England is calling on all of us to take action on the Government plans “Planning for the Future”

 “The government has devised some new plans that could pose a huge risk to the countryside and the communities living and working within it. 

Ministers want to take decision-making powers away from communities and local councils, handing it over to housing developers and central powers in Westminster.   

Under these new proposals, our ability to shape the future of where we live – a right communities have had for 70 years – could be lost with the stroke of a pen.” 

The Government plans are a serious threat to our ability to protect the Yare Valley from development in the future. The Yare Valley Society Committee urges you to sign the CPRE Petition to be found here.

This is only a tiny step to expressing opposition to the Government’s proposals. Please respond to the current consultation on the proposals. See Consultations for details.