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

32. Scole

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, the chapter includes the list of the sites in Scole that have been promoted to the Council for consideration. The assessment and allocation of sites for Roydon 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

The village is located partly on the edge of the Waveney Valley. The village is centred around the junction of the former routes of the A140 and A143. The village contains extensive frontage development to the north and east of this junction backed by several large housing estates. Relatively little development is located on the western side of the former A140, except for some limited frontage development along The Street and a small housing estate to the south of Diss Road. The area around the junction forms the village core and includes a variety of buildings of considerable historical significance.

Approximately half of the village consists of relatively modern dwellings of which many are detached, and the village is characterised by several open spaces near the centre, some of which afford views over the surrounding countryside. The A140 and A143, which both bypass the village, provide direct links to Norwich and Ipswich and to towns along the Waveney Valley. The A1066 to the west of the village links Scole to Diss, with Diss railway station around 2.5km from the village.

Services and Community Facilities

The settlement has a range of social and community facilities including a primary school, shop, pub and playing field pavilion. The village has the benefit of mains sewerage and there is a regular bus service.

Settlement Limit and Constraints

The Settlement Limit has been drawn to include the main built form of the settlement and to protect the setting of the Conservation Area around the village centre and church from inappropriate development to the west. The boundary also includes a residential allocation behind the affordable housing scheme at Flowerdew Meadow opposite the school. No alterations are proposed to the existing Settlement Limit.

For the reasons set out above, the suitability of development sites promoted for consideration in Scole 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.

You can view these sites on the map.

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