The Poringland area has been an area which has already seen a significant rise in its population. The result of this is that the local infrastructure is not coping with the influx of new residents. Getting appointments at the doctors' surgery is becoming more difficult, even though there is a new surgery with more doctors. Some of the current residents of Poringland are not getting their children into the local primary school because it is over subscribed. They are having accept that their children will have to travel to Trowse Primary School. Where will the new families have to send their children. There is no mention of new school building in the plan!
The greatest problem for us is the extra traffic on the local roads, in particular Caistor Lane. The amount of traffic on the lane has been increasing steadily as the population of the Poringland area has grown and more and more cars turn down Caistor Lane to avoid the congestion on the Bungay Road and the A146. It is used as a cut-through to the the Stoke Road to gain easier access to Norwich, the A140, Tesco at Harford Bridge and the A47 going west. The building of Mulbery Park (250 houses) at the top of Caistor Lane has led to another significant increase in cars driving up and down the lane. This, despite the reassurance we were given that people moving into Mulberry Park would use the Bungay Road. Vehicles frequently exceed the speed limit and this is a real problem for old people and children walking to school as there are no pavements. The only access to the 180 new homes on the proposed new site is from Caistor Lane. This "LANE" is not suitable for the increasing volume of traffic that it is having to cope with. There are narrow, dangerous bends which are not really wide enough for cars to pass each other without slowing up significantly and brushing the hedges to avoid collisions. If a County Park is included in the development, that will bring even more traffic on to Caistor Lane. Why do we need a County Park? We have a lot of lovely footpaths across the surrounding rural land and we have Whitlingham Country Park not far away. This area has had enough of suburbanisation. The "small rural community" of Caistor St Edmund is being lost as is becomes subsumed by the growth of Poringland and its surrounding villages.