1. Executive Summary

The proposed allocation site is well located in Mulbarton which is within the Norwich Policy Area. Mulbarton is located approximately 6 miles south of Norwich City Centre and 5 miles to the west of Wymondham. It is a mid-sized service village that provides a good range of services for its residents' day-to-day needs. These include a Doctors' Surgery, Dentist, Post Office, Mobile Library, community centres, children's nursery, infant and junior school, sports clubs, 2 supermarkets, hairdressers, Chinese/fish and chip takeaway, pub and regular bus services to and from Norwich.

Mulbarton is identified as a service village in the approved Joint Core Strategy. As a well-located key service village, Mulbarton is an appropriate place to accommodate new housing development.

The site makes a logical extension to the village to help accommodate future growth. It is not within an environmentally sensitive location where the NPPF would require development to be restricted. Technical Assessments have demonstrated that the site has the capacity to accommodate the proposed development in an acceptable manner and that impacts can be satisfactorily mitigated.

The Indicative Site Plan shows one way in which the site could be developed to accommodate up to 180 dwellings, a site for a new doctor's surgery, burial ground extension and an additional 9.81 ha of Green Infrastructure.

Clear benefits will arise from this proposal as follows:
* Immediately deliverable site to contribute towards housing supply;
* Delivery of affordable housing in line with Joint Core Strategy policy to help meet the significant under provision in affordable housing;
* Delivery of a site for a new Doctors Surgery to serve the village;
* Provision of land for an extension to the Church Burial Ground;
* Support to local shops and services. Both national and local planning policies seek to retain and enhance the provision of local services in rural areas. The new residents from the development will help to support the viability of local services in Mulbarton and, therefore, aid their continued provision;
* Delivery of new public open space with the ability to provide additional Green Infrastructure to the north of Norwich Road if desirable;
* Delivery of a new roundabout and highway/footway improvements which will help to slow down traffic on the approach into the village;
* Connection into and upgrade of existing pedestrian route through Churchyard to south of site to provide shared footway/cycleway access to the Common and upgrade to footway along The Common.
* Financial contribution towards improving kitchen and toilet facilities at the Church to enable increased community use;Provision of dropped kerb crossing point to enable pedestrian access to Farm Shop at Paddock Farm.
* Delivery of over £1,187,000 New Homes Bonus over 4 years to Norfolk County Council and South Norfolk Council to use locally. It is considered that this should be used to help facilitate the delivery of the new Doctors Surgery.

There are no overriding constraints that would prevent this site from being developed and Glavenhill Strategic Land respectfully request that it be allocated in the Greater Norwich Local Plan.

2. Site Introduction and Description

A larger version of this site was promoted by Glavenhill Strategic Land through the July 2016 'call for sites' process for residential development of up to 254 homes, a new Norwich Road Park containing 9.81 hectares of green infrastructure, Primary School site and residential care home for the elderly.

The size of this site has now been reduced following further assessment and is shown on the site plan at Section 3. below. The site could accommodate up to 180 homes, a new doctors surgery to serve the village and an extension to the Church burial ground. The site now extends to 13.27 hectares (including public open space, landscaping and surface water attenuation measures). There is further land available for additional green infrastructure to the north of Norwich Road if considered necessary.

The site is located to the north-east of the village adjoining the existing development boundary. At its northern end it abuts the B1113 Norwich Road which runs north-south through the village linking it with Norwich to the north and Bracon Ash and New Buckenham to the south. It also provides a link to the B1135 Wymondham Road to Hethel Engineering and onwards to the A11.

The site comprises 3 arable fields which are each substantially enclosed by boundary hedging. The north-west boundary to the B1113 Norwich Road is, however, open on the approach into the village allowing views across to the listed Paddock Farm.

The site is largely bordered by existing development to the south and west. The north-east corner of the site adjoins the rear gardens of residential properties fronting the B1113 Norwich Road. Existing houses and gardens on Saint Omer Close form a wedge of existing development between the two northern fields and southern field. These houses are separated from the northern two fields by an area of existing grass and scrubby shrubs. The southern field adjoins residential curtilages and small farmsteads to the south and west. To the east of the site are large agricultural fields and a public footpath runs east west across these and along the southern boundary of the site providing pedestrian access to Mulbarton Parish Church and Mulbarton Common to the south.

Mulbarton is located approximately 6 miles south of Norwich City Centre and 5 miles to the west of Wymondham. It is a mid-sized service village that provides a good range of services for its residents' day-to-day needs. These include a Doctors' Surgery, Dentist, Post Office, Mobile Library, community centres, children's nursery, infant and junior school, sports clubs, 2 supermarkets, hairdressers, Chinese/fish and chip takeaway, pub and regular bus services to and from Norwich.

Mulbarton Infant and Junior Schools are located on The Common and are easily accessible from the site. The site is also well located to take advantage of existing bus stops located on the B1113 Norwich Road within circa 500m of the site, i.e. approximately a ten-minute walk. Half hourly services are available to Norwich.

4. Site Opportunities

Glavenhill Strategic Land have signed a promotion agreement with the landowner on this site and are committed to securing outline planning permission on it and ensuring that it is marketed to an active housebuilder within the next 2 years.

The existing JCS identifies Mulbarton as being within the Norwich Policy Area (NPA). The NPA has been designated to accommodate the majority of planned growth for the Greater Norwich Area due to its close proximity to Norwich and the ability to provide sustainable development both in terms of transport connectivity and the proximity of jobs and services. Whichever of the 6 growth options are chosen, a significant proportion of new development should be directed to Norwich and its immediately surrounding villages, where there is capacity. This is a sustainable approach to locating new housing.

Existing JCS Policy 15 lists Mulbarton as a Service Village suitable to accommodate some housing development. Mulbarton is within easy commuting distance of employment opportunities within Norwich City Centre, the Norwich Research Park, UEA and University Hospital and Hethel Engineering Centre. It is a village where people want to live evidenced by the take up of new housing development that has already taken place in the village. Provision of additional new housing in the village will assist in providing a co-ordinated approach to future jobs growth in the key employment locations specified above.

Mulbarton Neighbourhood Plan policy HOU1 details that new development should be directed to the north of the village. This site meets that requirement and the following summaries of technical assessment work undertaken to date, demonstrate that this site has capacity to accommodate housing growth in conjunction with new local facilities to serve the village.

The indicative site plan (Figure 2 below) shows how this site could be developed to accommodate up to 180 dwellings, a site for a new doctor's surgery to serve the whole village, as well as an extension to the burial ground for the adjacent Church because the existing one is now nearing capacity. Open space areas to serve the development include a new northern Common at the entrance to the village. An additional 9.81ha of green infrastructure to serve wider deficiencies within the area could also be provided to the north of Norwich Road at the entrance to the village. This is also indicated on the plan.

Access to the site would be provided by a new roundabout junction at the entrance to the village. This would assist in slowing down traffic on the approach to the village and would also ensure that the majority of traffic arising from the new development would not need to drive into and out of the village itself for journeys to work. A new doctors surgery site in this location would also help to reduce existing congestion around the school and car park on the Common. A new pedestrian link will be created from the existing footpath to the east of the Church yard to provide direct access from the site to the Common and a safe walk to school route. A dropped kerb crossing point on the Norwich Road will be provided to enable new residents to access the Farm shop at Paddock Farm.