* Stoke Holy Cross is a relatively small village with limited facilities that are already under pressure from the recent housing development that has taken place in the village.
* The proposed site is 1.28 ha in size and could accommodate in excess of 40 dwellings. Stoke Holy Cross has already had over 140 dwellings built over the last three years, representing a 33% increase in households in lower Stoke, where most facilities in the Parish are located. This scale of increase well exceeds that envisaged in the Joint Core Strategy that identified it as a village suitable for 20 dwellings, given its limited facilities. A further substantial development of this nature would therefore put severe pressure on existing infrastructure serving the village, and inevitably lead to the need for people to seek community facilities elsewhere, especially Poringland and Norwich. Apart from the inconvenience of this, there would be a consequent increase in traffic movements along roads which are already well trafficked.
* The development would increase the amount of traffic on Long Lane and Norwich Road through Stoke Holy Cross, which is already experiencing significantly higher traffic flows as a result of the new developments in the village and those from the major developments in Poringland. This would increase the amount of traffic past the school, which is already severely congested at peak traffic hours. It would also increase traffic using Norwich Road, through Stoke, which is relatively narrow, has a series of substandard junctions, and no pavements or footways along much of the route.
* The development would represent an intrusion into the attractive valley landscape that separates Upper and Lower Stoke Holy Cross, which is an important feature of the village that is highly valued by its residents. It would als0 spread the village beyond its 'natural' development boundaries and outside the settlement boundary, into open fields, to the detriment of the existing rural landscape.