As Member for North Walsham West I was invited to attend the first meeting of the District Council Officers and ATLAS to look holistically at the development of the group of sites included in the sites specific Development Plan, numbers NW01, NW04 to NW07 and NW30.
This includes the H.L. Foods site, the Garden Centre and Ladbrooks Engineering and some others.
ATLAS are the Advisory Team for Large Applications, part of the Homes and Communities Agency which offers impartial (and free) support to local authorities and their partners to achieve the timely delivery of high quality and sustainable development.
The meeting comprised forward plan officers, conservation/landscape officers and the affordable housing officer, plus Steve Blatch, Strategic Director, from the District, and Highways and Section 106 officers from County. There were three people from ATLAS. As Virginia was at another meeting, only Keith Johnson, the portfolio holder for planning and I represented the Members (very much in the minority).
As a planner, I have to say that it was the most exciting meeting I have ever attended for the Council. This was not only the sharp end of planning, but will possibly become a government pathfinder scheme.
Instead of looking at the various sites separately, we are looking at them holistically, trying to devise a Development Brief that will benefit the whole town. Although it is anticipated that a large amount of the site would become housing, both market and affordable, we looked at the infrastructure needs, the access to schools, railway station and town. It is our intention that there should also be industrial units, taking advantage of the position to the south of the railway bridge, and the jobs at the Garden Centre and associated units must be protected.
It is anticipated the access to the whole site will primarily be from a roundabout on the Norwich Road at the southernmost part of the site, taking the spine road parallel to the railway, thus taking traffic away from the existing residences on Norwich Road. It must be obvious that because of this, some land owners will have land that is more likely to be used for infra structure, and be less valuable than residential land. For this reason, we need a holistic approach, enabling these owners who contribution is critical to the development of the whole, to gain a fair price for their land. We did not want the site developed piecemeal.
We particularly wanted the approach to the town along the railway line/bypass, to be improved to give a pleasant gateway to the town, which, as you all know, has no nice approaches.
We looked for the development to become a part of the town, with children attending existing schools, in particular utilising existing footpath links to Millfield, but probably with a one-stop shop and perhaps a pub/restaurant as well as the industrial units. We discussed having a community hall, but felt this might tend to separate the development from the main town. There was talk of football pitches and allotments on the fringe of the site, to give a gradual approach to the town.
The District Planners have now held a meeting with all North Walsham Town and District Councillors and are about to meet the landowners, to discuss Officer’s initial ideas, get councillors’ and landowners’ views and start work on the initial Development Brief. When this is done there will be wider consultations, so all those in North Walsham will get a chance to have their say.
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