Ben Burgess Planning Projects Manager Broadland District Council Thorpe Lodge 1 Yarmouth Road Thorpe St Andrew Norwich NR7 0DU 22 October 2012
Dear Ben, Outline Planning Application: North Sprowston & Old Catton On behalf of Beyond Green Developments I have great pleasure in submitting an outline planning application for a residential-led mixed-use development at North Sprowston & Old Catton. Having benefited from almost three years of study, design work, debate with stakeholders and the public and extensive pre-application discussion with you and your colleagues, we believe that now is the right time to present our proposals formally for consideration by Broadland District Council as the Local Planning Authority. The plans as presented will enable our vision, which we believe is shared with the overwhelming majority of those who have participated in the process thus far, of a place that offers a high quality of life with a very low environmental footprint and could become a superb new addition to the townscape of Broadland and Greater Norwich. I stress the word ‘enable’: despite the enormous amount of work already done, an outline planning application is very much the end of the beginning and I hope the proposals we have submitted make clear how and why continued close working with the Council, stakeholders and members of the local community will be critical to bringing the plans to life. The planning application consists of the following documents plus appendices: • • • • • • •
the necessary forms and certificates; a Design and Access Statement; 16 Supporting Statements (two of which are ‘standalone’ and the other 14 of which are presented as a set); a set of A1 drawings; an Environmental Statement with technical appendices, including a report to inform an Appropriate Assessment; a Transport Assessment with technical appendices; Health Impact and Town Centre Uses Impact Assessments.
We are submitting the required four hard copies of all the documentation and one copy on CD. As previously agreed, arrangements have been made to remit the appropriate application fee directly to the Council’s account. We are, of course, submitting this application at a time of some policy uncertainty. Falling within the Old Catton, Sprowston and Thorpe St Andrew ‘Growth Triangle’, the site and this application is plainly affected by the High Court judgement in Heard vs Broadland earlier this year and subsequent remission of parts of the GNDP Joint Core Strategy (JCS) for further work. It has always been Beyond Green’s intention to work with the aims and
expectations of local people as expressed in adopted policy, and we have taken great care from the outset first to understand how our work can – and then, we hope, demonstrate how it does – deliver the ambitions set out in the Joint Core Strategy and other policies. It has never been our wish, or that of the landowners with whom we are working, to act speculatively or to rely on an appeal to the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ contained within the National Planning Policy Framework. Notwithstanding that consultation is now under way on proposed submission content for the JCS and additional supporting evidence, it is unfortunate that we find ourselves ready to submit an application at a time when the policy basis for development in the Growth Triangle is in question. However, the conclusion is unavoidable that, until the relevant policies in the Joint Core Strategy have been examined and the direction of policy once again clearly established, to give consent to application of this scale in this location would be prejudicial to the outcome of the plan process and potentially at risk of legal challenge. I believe this conclusion is consistent with the Interim Policy Statement issued by the Council in the summer. In the circumstances, we have considered carefully the merits of submitting our proposals now as against delaying an application pending the JCS position being clearly established. For four main reasons, we have opted for the former. • First, it is our firm view that the proposed submission draft issued for consultation in August describes the right strategy to deliver sustainable growth in Broadland and Greater Norwich. Although the outcome of the consultation currently in progress cannot be gainsaid, the intellectual and evidential basis for growth to the north-east of Norwich remains very strong and we are optimistic that it will emerge as the preferred strategy, and that our proposals in turn demonstrate a close fit with that strategy. • Second, by submitting the application now we are able to put formally into the public domain a substantial body of evidence, including environmental and transport assessments, which attests to the deliverability of the draft policies and demonstrates how a large area of the ‘Growth Triangle’ can – and, if approved, will – be developed comprehensively to substantial social, economic and environmental benefit. • Third, the policy interregnum makes it all the more important that once a full suite of adopted policies is once again in place delivery of much-needed housing and other development can commence as quickly as possible. Without presumption about the JCS process or the view the Council’s Planning Committee will take on our application, we hope the necessary assessment work – which for an application of this scale and complexity will no doubt be substantial – can be taken forward in the usual way so that a rapid determination can be made once the direction of policy is once again clearly established. • Finally, a great many people – district, county, town and parish councillors; officers; technical stakeholders; local companies; interest groups; and members of the public – have contributed a great deal to the shaping of these proposals through their insight, ideas and constructive criticism. It would be a great pity if the level of engagement and interest that has been built up around the project were to dissipate because it were to be perceived to have been ‘put on the back burner’ for, potentially, several months more. Without any presumption whatsoever about how the application will be determined, we think it is important that we keep people engaged by moving the conversation on to how, if the application is ultimately approved, we can hit the ground running in the preparation of design codes, detailed design work and the earliest phases of building. The attendance of over 70 stakeholders from nearly 40 organisations at our presentation of our OPA on Friday 4th October and over 230 members of the public at our exhibition at the Sprowston Diamond Centre on the weekend of 5th-6th suggests that levels of interest in the project remain high.
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Beyond Green and our co-applicants therefore waive any expectation that this application will be determined within the statutory 13-week period and respectfully request that it not be put to Committee for decision until the submission draft JCS policies have been re-examined and found sound. Naturally, we will keep this under review should circumstances change. I hope this represents a sensible approach in the circumstances. We at Beyond Green stand ready to assist the coming process in whatever way we can, and look forward to discussing our application with you in the near future. Yours sincerely,
Neil Murphy Director of Planning, Policy and Economics Beyond Green Â