Comment

Representation ID: 22442

Received: 16/03/2020

Respondent: Mr Derek Jones

Number of people: 2

Agent: Bidwells

Great Plumstead and Little Plumstead is identified as a Service Village in the Joint Core Strategy for Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk, recognising its suitability as a location for small/medium scale residential development. Great Plumstead and Little Plumstead is designated as a Village Cluster in the draft GNLP. The Housing Spatial Distribution set out in Policy 1 of the GNLP Draft Strategy Document (Regulation 18) advises that, within Broadland, new sites in Village Clusters must be identified to deliver up to 480 dwellings. Policy 1 adds that those 480 additional dwellings will be distributed amongst those Broadland Village Clusters with ‘higher potential’ to accommodate growth.

Appendix 5 of the GNLP Draft Strategy Document lists Great and Little Plumstead among those Broadland Village Clusters with ‘higher potential’ to accommodate growth of 50-60 dwellings in the Plan period. This reflects the range of services and amenities available within the Village Cluster, which includes a primary school, village shop, village hall with car park, playing field and playground, church, allotments and a bowling green. Moreover, a local community group, with support from the Parish Council, has recently achieved planning permission for a new Community Shop/ Café with a post office, located within the Walled Garden on the Little Plumstead Hospital site. This is currently under construction, and is due to open in Summer 2020. The village is served by a bus service (KonectBus 5C), which runs through the village along Church Road, providing hourly access between the village and Norwich, Monday-Saturday. All of these services are within walking distance of GNLP0420R.

Despite this, no sites in Great and Little Plumstead have been identified for growth in the Plan period to 2038. Seemingly, the rationale for excluding new allocations from Great and Little Plumstead is due to the presence of significant existing commitments in the Village Cluster (129 dwellings). However, there does not appear to be any commentary as to whether these 129 consented dwellings are considered deliverable in terms of the NPPF definition, or if they are included in the 995 dwellings across Broadland’s Village Clusters which are considered deliverable in Policy 1 of the GNLP Draft Strategy Document.

From further review of Appendix 5 of the GNLP Draft Strategy Document, the emerging draft allocations across Broadland’s Village Clusters have been identified to deliver a minimum of 358 dwellings, and a maximum of 517 dwellings. This offers no guarantee that the required 480 additional dwellings are deliverable in the Plan period to 2038.

With this in mind, we consider that more sites across the Broadland Village Clusters should be allocated to give the GNLP greater resilience in securing a deliverable supply of housing land to 2038. GNLP0420R is ideally placed to provide this resilience, by providing small-scale residential development, in accordance with the parameters of the current call for additional sites across Broadland and South Norfolk’s Village Cluster.

GNLP0420R is a site which is entirely deliverable, and should be taken forward as a site allocation to secure sustainable growth in Great and Little Plumstead to 2038.