Showing comments and forms 1 to 4 of 4

Object

South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan (Reg. 19 Pre-submission Draft)

Representation ID: 2398

Received: 22/02/2023

Respondent: Mr John Lowe

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

Representation Summary:

Outside the village and therefore inappropriate. Combined with very dangerous vehicular access this site is especially unsuitable

Change suggested by respondent:

Do not include in any Wicklewood development plans.

Full text:

Outside the village and therefore inappropriate. Combined with very dangerous vehicular access this site is especially unsuitable

Object

South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan (Reg. 19 Pre-submission Draft)

Representation ID: 2455

Received: 25/02/2023

Respondent: Mr John Botly

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

Representation Summary:

This proposal (increased to 9 properties at the last count) was not, to my knowledge, part of the original Wicklewood plan but appears now to have become so despite considerable public objections. My particular objections are based around the handling and dispersal of waste and rain water and no proper solution that would be satisfactory long-term to existing residents (including me) has been proposed. Other facts that concern the village include proposed access onto Hackford Road on a very dangerous bend known to have road accidents history.

Change suggested by respondent:

WIC3 as a plan needs to be removed from the plan for the village. In particular as Wicklewood village council has already considered the proposal at length and rejected it before passing any decisions on to SNDC. It is my hope that SNDC will ultimately agree with our village council and scrap the proposal.

Full text:

This proposal (increased to 9 properties at the last count) was not, to my knowledge, part of the original Wicklewood plan but appears now to have become so despite considerable public objections. My particular objections are based around the handling and dispersal of waste and rain water and no proper solution that would be satisfactory long-term to existing residents (including me) has been proposed. Other facts that concern the village include proposed access onto Hackford Road on a very dangerous bend known to have road accidents history.

Object

South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan (Reg. 19 Pre-submission Draft)

Representation ID: 2897

Received: 07/03/2023

Respondent: Wicklewood Parish Council

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

Representation Summary:

Wicklewood Parish Council have concerns about drainage at this site. At a presentation given by a developer at a parish council meeting, the parish council and several local residents raised concerns about how the surface drainage of this site would impact on the drainage and septic tanks of nearby properties. We cannot see that anything has been done to mitigate this risk. There are also concerns about the development exiting onto that road on a blind bend where speeding is an issue and which has already seen some accidents

Change suggested by respondent:

Wicklewood Parish Council does not consider this a suitable site for a housing development

Full text:

Wicklewood Parish Council have concerns about drainage at this site. At a presentation given by a developer at a parish council meeting, the parish council and several local residents raised concerns about how the surface drainage of this site would impact on the drainage and septic tanks of nearby properties. We cannot see that anything has been done to mitigate this risk. There are also concerns about the development exiting onto that road on a blind bend where speeding is an issue and which has already seen some accidents

Object

South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan (Reg. 19 Pre-submission Draft)

Representation ID: 3195

Received: 01/03/2023

Respondent: Historic England

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Not specified

Representation Summary:

Whilst there are no designated heritage assets on this site, the grade I listed church of All Saints and the grade II listed war memorial lie to the south of the site. The grade II listed Old Mill House lies to the west of the site. Therefore, any development of this site has the potential to impact upon the significance of these heritage assets through development within the setting of the assets.
There is a degree of separation of the site from the church.
We do appreciate that this is an existing allocation and it has a planning application pending determination.
We welcome the second bullet point relating to the landscaping and the church and its setting and suggest the addition of the words conserve and enhance to more closely reflect the NPPF.

Change suggested by respondent:

In second bullet point, add
"Visual impact on and to conserve and enhance St Andrew and All Saints Church and its setting"

Full text:

Thank you for consulting Historic England on the South Norfolk Village Clusters Local Plan Regulation 19 Draft Consultation. As a statutory consultee, our role is to ensure that the conservation of the historic environment is fully integrated into planning policy and that any policy documents make provision for a positive strategy for the
conservation and enjoyment of the historic environment.
Please also see our detailed comments in the attached table. We provide a summary of the main comments below.
SUMMARY
We very much welcome the completion of the Heritage Impact Assessments for a number of sites. The assessments have helped to inform many of the policies
providing helpful recommendations for mitigation and enhancement which is welcomed.
Whilst we consider many aspects of the plan to be sound, we have identified issues with some of the policies and site allocations which do compromise the overall soundness of the plan.
Under paragraph 35 of the NPPF some aspects of this Plan are unsound as they have not been positively prepared, are not justified, effective, or consistent with
national policy. We have identified below some of the key areas where we find the Plan unsound and what measures are needed to make the Plan sound. In summary we highlight the following four issues.
1. Heritage Impact Assessments
We are delighted to see that Heritage Impact Assessments have been prepared for
many sites. However, there are a few allocations where we recommend the preparation on an HIA now prior to EiP (e.g. VC BRO1 West, VC WOR1). The policy wording should then be amended accordingly. In the absence of an HIA we consider these sites are not sufficiently justified. There are also some settlement limit extensions where an HIA should also be prepared now ahead of EiP (e.g. SN0020SL, SN0588SL). Finally, there are some recommendations in HIAs that have not been incorporated into policy. The policies need to be amended to incorporate these HIA recommendations. This applies to a number of sites as set out in the attached table. Further details of all the relevant sites are given in Appendix A.
2. Settlement Limit extensions
We note that the smaller sites have not been included as allocations but instead the settlement limit has been extended to include that land. However, there are some extensions which would have an impact on the historic
environment and yet, in the absence of a site-specific policy, we are concerned about how the recommendations of the HIAs and any necessary mitigation/enhancement will be secured through an appropriate policy framework. The NPPF (para 16d) makes it clear that Plans should contain policies that are
clearly written and unambiguous, so it is evident how a decision maker should react development proposals. Further advice on the content of policies is given in the PPG at Paragraph: 002 Reference ID: 61-002-20190315 Revision date: 15 03 2019. It states that, ‘Where sites are proposed for allocation, sufficient detail should be given
to provide clarity to developers, local communities and other interested parties about the nature and scale of development’.
3. Archaeology Criterion
Many of the policies include an archaeology criterion which states that ‘The HER should be consulted to determine the need for any archaeological surveys prior to development’. Whilst we welcome the inclusion of a criterion for archaeology, in our view some
assessment is needed to inform any planning application (rather than waiting until after permission is granted but before development). This is consistent with the
policy set out in para 194 of the NPPF. We therefore advise that the archaeology criterion should be amended to read, ‘Planning applications should be supported by archaeological assessment including the results of field evaluation where appropriate.’ This applies to a number of sites in the Plan.
4. Site-Specific Issues
We have raised a number of quite site-specific issues in relation to the Bressingham, Little Melton, Rockland St Mary and Tasburgh sites. See the attached table for
further details of our concerns.
Closing comments
We have suggested a series of other changes to the Plan. Many of these changes suggested do not go to the heart of the Plan’s soundness, but instead are intended to improve upon it. We believe that these comments can be addressed by changes to wording in the plan.
In preparation of the local plan, we encourage you to draw on the knowledge of local conservation officers, the county archaeologist and local heritage groups.
Please note that absence of a comment on a policy, allocation or document in this letter does not mean that Historic England is content that the policy, allocation or
document is devoid of historic environment issues. We should like to stress that this response is based on the information provided by the Council in its consultation. To
avoid any doubt, this does not affect our obligation to provide further advice and, potentially, object to specific proposals, which may subsequently arise as a result of
this plan, where we consider that these would have an adverse effect upon the historic environment.
If you have any questions then please do get back to me. We suggest it would be helpful for us to meet and discuss our comments, resolve any outstanding issues and
begin to prepare a Statement of Common Ground. Please contact us to suggest some possible meeting dates.