Site Proposals document

1 This site results in a significant revision of the Development Boundary. This is unwelcome and could result in what the Council regards as excessive and unacceptable levels of development in a Village which has and will meet it's obligations to expansion with existing identified sites. See Appendix 1.

2 Within the 'Suitability' Assessment under HELAA the GNLP records that there are six Amber areas:-
Access
Accessibility to Services,
Utilities Capacity,
Flood Risk,
Historic Environment
and, Transport and Roads
We would suggest that Flood Risk and Historic Environment matter less to our residents than each of the others where we feel that there are significant issues with each of them. Hales Hospital has now been redeveloped into Heckingham Park and is occupied.
The Site Suitability Conclusions describe the site as 'large' and lists several key areas where difficulties could be costly to resolve. This means that any successful development has to be a scale that justifies such spending on infrastructure. Development on such a scale is not acceptable to the Parish.

3 If this site is adopted as suitable for development there is a potential to construct 70+ houses on the land using current density guidelines. Thus coupled with the existing site that is approved for development (Hal 1) our Village could face construction of an estate approaching 100 dwellings. This would take Hales from its current situation into something entirely different and this would be unacceptable to us.

Hales is a Service Village. While some of our residents are 'commuters' we also have a significant number of residents who have moved here to enjoy it's semi rural location.

4 Due to unacceptable (to all parties) conditions for any vehicle access from Briar Lane access will have to be on to Yarmouth Road. This further aggravates an existing concern about access onto this road where whilst technically limited to 30 MPH a majority of traffic exceeds this speed and often by a substantial margin. The proposed access is on a hill with a tightening bend to the west, going downhill.

5 While the roundabout on the A146 Yarmouth Road junction will ease the dangers of joining the A146 from Hales it will not solve the ongoing difficulty of getting into and out of Norwich for commuting traffic. Adding significantly to the volume of traffic with a major estate will not help this.

6 The Proposed Development mentioned in the HELAA suitability Assessment reads'Residential development of an unspecified number, incorporating a primary school, a small local centre and public open spaces.' is, we understand from reference to the GNLP Team an error and should read 'Low density open market and affordable housing in a sustainable location'.

APPENDIX 1

As at the last census (2011) Hales and Heckingham had 622 residents in 245 households. Since then Heckingham Park has come on stream (44 households, estimate of 100 residents, the four bungalows behind the Masala Garden have been completed, two detached houses in School Lane have been occupied, and two more bungalows are being built in School Lane. Farm buildings in Norton Road have been converted and occupied. A further dozen units with planning permission for Badgers site on the A146 Y Yarmouth Road junction will be built and one unit will be built behind The Beeches on Green Lane.

Therefore 66 households in total with a guesstimate of 150 residents have been built or are in course on construction. This is an increase of 25% in our population and a greater % in the number of dwellings. The existing site for development known as HAL 1 was approved but eh Parish Council on the basis that there would be 10 dwellings involved. It now seems that there is a plan to exceed this number.