South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan (Reg. 18 Draft)

10. Burston, Shimpling and Gissing

Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan

The Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan covers an area that includes the following settlements that are, or form part of, a South Norfolk Village Cluster: Burston, Shimpling, Diss, Roydon and Scole.

The Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan is being prepared by the Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group and is expected to be published for consultation in summer 2021. The Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan will include site allocations for residential development, based upon housing requirements for different areas as set out in the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP).

The housing requirement identified for Diss is 250 homes, this is set out in the GNLP. The indicative housing requirements for Burston and Shimpling, Roydon and Scole is a minimum of 25 homes each, a minimum of 75 homes in total.

To ensure transparency, this chapter includes the list of the sites in Burston and Shimpling that have been promoted to the Council for consideration. The assessment and allocation of sites for Burston and Shimpling will be undertaken through the Neighbourhood Plan, relevant details of the site(s) promoted to the Council have been shared with the Neighbourhood Plan steering Group.

Details of the Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan can be found here: www.ddnp.info.

Form and character

Burston & Shimpling

Burston comprises the village and outlying hamlets of Mill Green and Shimpling. A further group of dwellings is located at Audley End.

Burston has developed mainly along Diss Road, Crown Green and Station Road and is centred round two village greens. The western half comprises relatively modern detached dwellings in contrast to the eastern side which is mainly semi-detached ribbon development. Crown green, Church green and the open areas leading into Higdon Close form an attractive centre to Burston. There are several notable old buildings which form part of the designated conservation area extending along Diss Road and Mill Road. The surrounding countryside comprises mainly open fields bordered by low hedges and scattered trees.

Gissing

The parish of Gissing comprises three main settlements at Upper Street, Lower Street and Mill Green. The remainder of the parish is sparsely populated, containing farmsteads and some isolated rows of dwellings.

Services and Community Facilities

The cluster has a range of facilities comprising a preschool, school, village hall, pub and outdoor recreation area. There is also a limited bus service. Within Burston there are also some employment uses in agriculture, hospitality and office sectors.

Settlement Limit and Constraints

The Settlement Limit has been drawn to provide for the consolidation of much of the built form of Burston, allowing for limited infill development within it. The Settlement Limit excludes the areas considered to form attractive features of the village which include Crown Green and Church Green and their respective settings. The boundary also excludes the outlying settlements, although should the Mill cease to operate this could provide a suitable brownfield redevelopment opportunity. No alterations are proposed to the existing Settlement Limit.

Preferred, Shortlisted and Rejected Sites

Burston and Shimpling

For the reasons set out above, the suitability of development sites promoted for consideration in Burston and Shimpling are not set out here. However, for the purposes of transparency a list of sites promoted to the Council for consideration is set out below.

Gissing

Gissing is not included as part of The Diss and District Neighbourhood Plan, therefore any sites promoted in Gissing have been assessed for suitability through the South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan.

The following site was promoted for development, however, it was rejected on the basis of information available at the time of assessment.

To find out more about the Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan, please visit our Virtual Exhibition.