Snub Roadshow heads to Thorpe End


It was standing room only yet again at the fourth SNUB roadshow in Thorpe End Garden Village yesterday evening. Over 100 residents squeezed into the village hall, keen to hear how the proposed housing and industrial development detailed for the area, together with the controversial Northern Distributor Road, would affect the village. Despite the village recently having been awarded conservation status by Broadland District Council, a large 4 lane flyover, needed to cross the Bittern line and the Plumstead Road, is planned as part of the NDR, only 500 metres from the conservation boundary.

Joining the usual SNUB presenters were guest speakers David Hook from Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and Denise Carlo from Norwich and Norfolk Transport Action Group (NNTAG), who both delivered excellent speeches that were informative as well as extremely engaging. Residents were horrified at the extent of the plans and were mostly unaware of the sheer scale of development proposed and the impact this would have on the village, should it go ahead. There are huge concerns surrounding the impact the additional traffic, created by the NDR, would have on the Plumstead Road, despite the council playing this down in the traffic projections which SNUB challenge as inaccurate.

Broadland's Communications Officer and Editor of Broadland News, Angie Doy, also attended the meeting, as both a local resident and in her capacity as a representative of the council. SNUB's chairman, Stephen Heard had previously offered to write a piece for Broadland News giving a factually correct alternative view of the development for local residents but his offer was declined! Despite being BDC communications officer, the official seemed unaware of developments that had taken place earlier in the day at the Joint Core Strategy exploratory meeting, when Broadlands Chief Planner and Strategic Director was put on the spot by planning inspector Roy Foster. When pressed as to how the development planned in the North East Growth Triangle would be delivered, should the NDR fail to get the necessary funding from the Government, Mr Kirby admitted "There is no Plan B" The pre-hearing meeting, due to take place immediately after the exploratory meeting was abandoned and has now been postponed until at least September. Read the EDP write up of the meeting here.

All in all, an excellent day for the campaign!

5 comments:

  1. I attended this hearing and I was singularly impressed with the planning inspectors very astute questioning. The reactions and responses of the team from the partnership were, to say the least,interesting. The inspectors were very impressive and were obviously very used to asking the "right questions"
    The fact that the next hearing was orginally scheduled for July and has had to be put back until probably October,indicates how many points still remain to be clarified by the partnership team and I came away from the meeting feeling very heartened and encouraged that our opposition to the partnerships plans is fully justified and that we can win this fight.We need to get Keith Simpson and Dan Roper(who should be working together now ?) to fight for us and get the government funding withdrawn.NO FUNDING = NO INFRASTRUCTURE. NO INFRASTRUCTURE = NO DEVELOPMENT. So,lets all write to Keith Simpson, as David suggests.

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  2. Sorry not to make it to the meeting yesterday - I am catching up on family time having been rather busy before May6th!. I am really please the meeting went well & I will be supporting you again soon.

    Dan Roper

    I agree that Keith and I should now be working together.

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  3. How dare that lady from Broadland accuse Mr Hastings and the residents of Rackheath of lying. She should have apologised it was a disgrace. Are we living under a Dictatorship ?

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  4. When will Broadland DC wake up and serve us as they should. Six Parish Councils, 4,000 Residents, our County Councillor, our MP, the Liberal Democrats, are all against the crazy Ecotown and the wanton destruction of our farmland and quality of life, all to give profit for their Developer friends.

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  5. The contribution from Broadland was at best unhelpful at worst cynical. The residents wanted to ask questions but the woman from Broadland shanghaied the meeting to make statements on behalf of the Council.
    They are trying to impose an undesirable scheme using our hard earned money to promote it.
    Our councillors just turn up and support it in spite of the opposition from those they are supposed to represent.
    I leave you with this thought as expressed by CPRE

    The hundred thousand people who are coming here are not part of organic growth. It is an inward migration which will destroy Norwich as we know it and turn it into a conurbation like Bristol.
    We need the green lungs and open space, the tranquility and the dark skies. Once it is gone it is irretrievable.

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