A drive around the outskirts of Norwich reveals that there are many industrial buildings for sale or for rent - some large and some offering opportunities for start-ups. An article in the EDP last week reporting on the plight of Howard House in King Street mentions that a third of the apartments at Paper Mill Yard opposite the football ground are still empty. One of the administrators responsible for Howard House and the planned development of St Anne's Wharf said that the depressed state of the residential apartment market had contributed to the problems of the companies involved. So we have empty industrial units and empty homes and villages wanting small developments to meet their own needs and yet Broadland still think they should be pushing ahead with developing farmland to build a new town to fulfil their aspirations.
Is it not time to put egos to one side and to admit that the present economic and political climate is quite different from the one at the time that the Greater Norwich Development Partnership was set up. A re-assessment of the number of people actually needing homes in this area is called for - are there any guarantees that local people would actually get any of the proposed affordable homes? With the points system currently in place wouldn't people from as far away a the outskirts of London get priority if they had amassed more points?
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