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Representation ID: 22129

Received: 16/03/2020

Respondent: M Scott Properties Ltd

Agent: Strutt & Parker LLP

The preferred option for the Local Plan combines the concentration of the majority of development in and around Norwich and on the Cambridge to Norwich Tech Corridor, a large focus on market towns, with an element of dispersal to villages. This approach is supported and provides a balance across a range of the objectives of the Local Plan.

This approach would see housing commitments providing a total minimum deliverable commitment of 6,342 within the Main Towns over Plan period of 2018 – 2038.

The settlement hierarchy’s recognition of the contribution that the Main Towns like Diss make to the delivery of housing is acknowledged and supported. While it is acknowledged that Norwich should be the principal focus growth, the market towns have an important role in creating a vibrant sub-region, and in the case of Diss serve wide hinterlands from which people are drawn to use the town’s shops, services, and facilities, including both primary schools and secondary schooling as well as the train station.

In addition to the above, the preferred settlement hierarchy follows a typical approach and looks at the different levels of services between places, we support the clustering of villages within the countryside and believe this recognises that in some cases, existing businesses within the villages provide services not only for the village that they are located in, but also for smaller neighbouring settlements which may rely on the services they provide.