Before I forget, please investigate this web address and help me get up to £25K for the Ward
www.west-norfolk.gov.uk/communityprojectsfund
Well, McDonald’s has stirred public interest. The number of public comments at the time of writing, is just over 600 and the proportion of objectors v supporters is well over 3:1. The message is clear, it is not wanted at this site and, for many, anywhere in this area.
Consultees, again at the time of writing, have been slow to respond. Councils ‘close down’ over August as many key officers are on holiday so that might be the reason. As of 8th September, Lynx buses have objected, as have Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Wild Ken Hill. Environmental Health has a holding objection. Public Health, after citing several reasons why it could be refused, leaves the decision up to the planning authority. Heacham Parish Council’s objection was delayed by a Borough technical ‘glitch’.
Two related planning applications have been made. One for an 8m (26feet 3 inches) high illuminated totem pole, application number 26/01395/A, the other for multiple illuminated signs, application number 26/01394/A.
Although the totem pole is identified, in the application for the restaurant, by a labelled dot on a complex lighting plan, it is omitted from the pictures purporting to show how the site will look. I assume the agents realised that it would put the site in a bad light.
If you haven’t already done so, object to these two applications too. I see no sensible reason to agree with any of the applications so am not encouraging supporters. No doubt, the story will continue.
Now for something which may have encouraged an even higher number of responses – the revelation of the Borough’s call for potential development sites. Well over 700 sites came forward. You could comment on them all up until the end of September and I hope the efforts of the Borough Council to engage with you didn’t fall on stony ground.
There are 20 potential sites in Heacham, 2 more just over the border in Hunstanton, 5 in Sedgeford. Fring is the place to be because there are none.
Within Heacham, sites offered include a total of just over 500 houses whilst just up the A149, across the border another 400 pop up. Sedgeford has sites to hold around 60.
A big plot of land towards the Snettisham island is offered for retail including a builders’ supply yard. Whilst on the Heacham village side, it is more retail food outlets, and/or a care home, and/or a hotel. There are several offerings of more caravans, camping or other tourist facilities. Essentially, if it is green and empty fill it in.
If the Borough still has it all on its website you will find the interactive map, revealing locations of all potential sites. You have to bring up the home page, scroll down to the screen which is titled, People Opportunities and Places, click the black box saying consultation 1-29th September which takes you to information about the Local Plan. Scroll down that to point 7, access the surveys, and click that. Scroll down and choose, ‘comment on proposed sites across the borough’ (there is another survey about the local plan and you might want to do that later too). Anyway, you finally get to an interactive map, or rather some instructions before you proceed further.
I found it hard and I’m used to convoluted paths to make a comment. However, it has all been done now and I predict that few comments were received from the public, probably quite a lot from Parish Councils, and very full ones from developers.
The next stage is for planning officers to consider all the sites in detail, mull over any responses from the consultation and then submit the shorter list to further consultation. If you missed your chance last month, get ready for the next one.
The end of this month sees the death of local democracy for planning decisions. This government has castrated planning committees and they will only be used in a very limited manner now. The default position is that applications will be decided by planning officers with only significant cases meeting certain, well defined, criteria possibly being referred to planning committee. To facilitate this, the right of Borough Councillors to call in planning applications to planning committee has been curbed. Until now, Borough Councillors have been able to support the concerns of residents about applications which they feel will adversely affect them. If officers recommended such applications should be accepted, councillors could get them heard before planning committee. The committee might still agree with officers but concerns would have been voiced and, likely, planning conditions written in or amended to make consent more palatable. And, often, the committee would refuse the application resulting in its dismissal; a subsequent, modified, fresh application, or an appeal to the planning inspectorate by the applicant. On many occasions that appeal has been lost and the planning committees decision proved correct and the officers’ recommendation wrong. All that mechanism has gone yet the government, the Prime Minister, witter on about local power, devolution, the need to listen to the public. Never believe a politician.
Very local matters concerning water: Sedgeford Parish Council has been attempting to get some sense out of Anglian Water and the Environment Agency about the loss, in recent months, of the Heacham River between Fring and Sedgeford. Drinking water for much of the area north of Snettisham comes from water stored in the chalk beneath Fring. Anglian Water pumps it out of the ground. The same underground aquifer feeds the Heacham River though there are other springs just beyond the Wash Pit, Sedgeford, on the Heacham side. Those maintain some flow through the Lavender site, under the A149, alongside the site of the proposed McDonald’s, past Heacham Park, the Salting’s nature reserve, and to the sea at South Beach.
Logic suggests that if you pump water out of the same source that feeds the river, then the river will suffer. In their latest missive, the Environment Agency seem to suggest that the loss of the river is due to dry weather. That that is a major factor, none can dispute but, if pumping were reduced, surely the water table would rise and the river receive some of its due?
I cannot advocate not providing drinking water to meet existing needs but I can say that any significant planning developments should be put on hold until at least there is an additional water supply (and sewage treatment) for them. So, the call for sites which has created possible opportunities for hundreds more houses and extensive tourist sites in the Heacham / Hunstanton area should be considered fiction unless and until water is piped from elsewhere including new reservoirs.
Anglian Water and mains repairs. Anyone in Heacham will have noticed multiple roadworks in recent months. A significant number have been due to broken water mains and their quick repair has been necessary. However, sometimes clearing up leaves a lot to be desired. The excavation which closed the Broadway for several days left sand in the road gutters and on the pavement whilst the barriers and cones were left in place for days after work had finished and became a hazard. Another excavation on Station Road left a road drain partially blocked with chippings stuck in the grid. I have reported both matters to AW in the hope they will ensure their contractors clear up better in future.
The pool of water that plagues Station Road by the bus stop close to the pub still exists. The system that was installed years ago to take water away was broken and NCC Highways have not resolved it.
I have commented, many times, on the impending Local Government Reorganisation which I have supported and still consider necessary as long as it is the preferred model of three unitaries. The Labour government which initiated it has now put the matter on hold and elections next May will be as normal, for Borough Councillors not for shadow unitary councillors. Though that won’t change (I think) the unitary proposals will reemerge at some point within the next two years. What will overtake them is devolution, the election of a mayor for a combined Norfolk and Suffolk. I don’t know anyone who wants that.
You, the public, will have to raise your voices more often and louder. Politicians blink if votes are in jeopardy.
Terry Parish Borough Councillor for Heacham Ward which includes Sedgeford and Fring
