Comment

Representation ID: 22507

Received: 16/03/2020

Respondent: Broadland Green Party

How is a need for 28% “affordable housing” to be met, simply developing more homes does not make them “affordable”. Affordable housing is an impossibility in the private sector because prices will only drop if the market becomes flooded and if that happens then the number of householders in negative equity will rocket with a very negative impact on social stability. Councils within the GNDP need to develop workable schemes to fund low-carbon social housing on a scale that has not yet been realised.

The rail network – with the Greater Anglia franchise which started in August 2019 more reliable and frequent services should be planned to encourage travel and commuting by rail. Until there is a good weekend rail service it will not be possible to use the train, rather than the car, for leisure commutes within and out of Norfolk in both directions. This one simple change could save very many unnecessary car journeys to and from East Anglia and support a culture change to encourage train use.
The plan suggests Norwich Airport is a catalyst for economic growth but it is growth that is incompatible with a low-carbon economy and minimising the impacts of climate change. The Environmental objective (para 8c) of the NPPF specifically states the need to “mitigate and adapt to climate change, including moving to a low carbon economy.” It further states that “opportunities can be taken to secure net gains across each of the different objectives”. The expansion of Norwich Airport is clearly not compatible with the NPPF environmental objective.
The cycle network - there has been a 40% increase in cycling since 2013 in the Norwich urban area. Whilst there is focus on the city in the plan there is little mention of cycling elsewhere in Greater Norwich. At a recent consultation with Highways England on the dualling of the A47 at North Burlingham it was stated that footpaths and cycle routes will be looked at once the road has been designed. This is old style thinking and is not giving walking and cycling the prominence they deserve for the good reasons of health, sustainable transport and tourism.
Rural transport – little is said in the plan of developing rural bus services. Given the urgent need to reduce car journeys a greater emphasis needs to be put on rural transportation which includes bus, rail and cycling. Greater emphasis and integrated planning is needed with initiatives such as Connecting Norfolk to promote the use of demand responsive transport services and car sharing.
Digital infrastructure is vital to support rural enterprises and home-working. The mobile phone network is notoriously poor and the Better Broadband for Norfolk programme has not been successful in reaching many houses in villages where there has been the roll out of fibre broadband to a central node in a village but not beyond. Digital infrastructure must be given a greater priority in the years to come.
Emissions and climate change
It is stated in para 82 that “Mitigating the effects of climate change within the Greater Norwich area is a cornerstone of the GNLP”. In which case much more needs to be done in curbing carbon emissions through a radical review of the transport policy as explained above, and the building of energy efficient homes. The expansion of Norwich Airport and the road network is not compatible with “mitigating the effects of climate change”. This has a knock on effect on air pollution which it is accepted remains an important issue with more work to be done. To reinforce the need to review transport options it is also stated in para 84: they (CO2 emissions) are above the national average in rural parts of the area, partly due to a greater reliance on car journeys.
Renewable energy
92. Our plan should support further development of decentralised, renewable and low carbon sources of energy.
Greater emphasis needs to be placed on community energy schemes. Councils should consider smart grids, greater efficiency in housing (including retrofit insulation), greater on-site renewable energy production and energy balancing and storage. See later under Policy 2 regarding Part L of the 2013 Building Regulations.