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

Significant improvements need to be be made to the whole of the road system (not just close to the site(s)) through the village in the interests of the safety of all road users, but particularly children and families on their way to the nearly local village school.

At its meeting on 20th February, Kirby Cane & Ellingham Parish Council (KCEPC) councillors took the view that the plan was unsound because it did not fulfil the objective “to protect village communities and support rural services and facilities” because there was no indication that the whole of Mill Road, the village’s arterial highway, which is already considered by residents not to be fit for purpose, especially around the junction with Mill Lane, would be improved. Furthermore, in the 2023 site assessment document, in spite of the fact that the NCC Highways score is Red, the site score for this section is given as Amber, presumably because it is the only viable site possible and a Red classification may rule it out for development.
Regardless of improvements to the immediate site access, Mill Lane was too narrow, and the western end towards the school plagued with hazards, leading to the dangerous junction with Church Road. Concerns were also raised about the junction onto the A143, where joining vehicles have to deal with poor visibility while trying to turn into 50-mile-an-hour plus traffic.

Greater attention needs to be paid to these wider service and infrastructure issues at local, regional and national level to take an holistic approach to development.

At its meeting on 20th February, Kirby Cane & Ellingham Parish Council took the view that the plan was unsound because it does not fulfil the objective “to protect village communities and support rural services and facilities” because there was no indication that wider services such as health and education, already under significant strain, would be improved, and also fails to comply with the duty to co-operate as it does not take account of the concerns of the community about this.
Also, residents voiced concerns about whether the sewage system could deal with existing demand, let alone 25 more properties.

One of the previous layouts could be considered as an alternative.

At its meeting on 20th February, Kirby Cane & Ellingham Parish Council took the view that the plan was unsound because the site as presented in the Regulation 19 consultation completely enclosed one property as well as impacting others in the vicinity.

The plan needs to make provision for significant improvements need to be be made to the whole of the road system (not just close to the site(s)) through the village in the interests of the safety of all road users, but particularly children and families on their way to the nearly local village school.

At its meeting on 20th February, Kirby Cane & Ellingham Parish Council (KCEPC) councillors took the view that the plan was unsound because it did not fulfil the objective “to protect village communities and support rural services and facilities” because there was no indication that the whole of Mill Road, the village’s arterial highway, which is already considered by residents not to be fit for purpose, especially around the junction with Mill Lane would be improved. Mill Road as a whole is too narrow, and the western end towards the school plagued with hazards, leading to the dangerous junction with Church Road. Concerns were also raised about the junction onto the A143, where joining vehicles have to deal with poor visibility while trying to turn into 50-mile-an-hour plus traffic.
As previously mentioned, this site would inevitably put more pressure on the dangerous junction of Mill Lane and Mill Road, and is classified Red by NCC Highways, although once again a HELAA score of Amber is given – the existence of a footpath from Florence Way to the Mill Lane/Mill Road junction is really inconsequential as this has no bearing on the ability of cars to access the site safely. Concern was also raised about the ability of the existing private highway infrastructure within the Florence Way development to cope with the extra traffic that would be required.
Councillors took the view that the requirements for the site laid out in the plan do not comply with the duty to cooperate as residents' views have not adequately been taken into consideration.
The attached image shows how far vehicles need to pull into Mill Road from Mill Lane (a junction on a blind corner) in order to gain visibility for turning right towards the centre of the village.

The timetable of consultations should be regularised.

Kirby Cane & Ellingham Parish Council agrees with the CPRE's challenge to the soundness of the VCHAP because it has been decoupled from the Greater Norwich Local Plan, which has had a different consultation timetable, rendering both “unsound”. Furthermore, the CPRE’s challenges to the GNLP included questions relating to overall numbers of houses provided by the plan, which, if found to be unsound, would impact the number of houses allocated by the VCHAP. This is particularly true of greenfield sites, and both the sites within the village of Ellingham are greenfield, with the land south of Mill Road (SN0305) in particular being classified as grade 3/4 agricultural. The parish council's planning committee agreed with both these assessments, and asked the clerk to refer to these in the parish council’s responses to the VCHAP consultation – specifically that if SNC had sufficient sites elsewhere in the district and these village clusters were therefore surplus to requirements, the plan was unsound as it did not fulfil the stated objective of “meeting housing needs”.