One of the privileges of being a local MP is the ability to help great local projects.

That’s why it was such a joy to be back in Necton this past Saturday to formally open the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Memorial Wood in the village, joining the vicar, local councillors and community volunteers (from Necton Area Trust).

A few years ago, Necton Parish Council purchased a piece of woodland in the centre of the village, known locally as ‘the Marlpit’. Although a green space, it had been unused for many years and was deemed unsafe for the public, with fences keeping people out. The Parish Council, working with the Necton Area Trust, committed to making this area a local asset once again and, after approximately four years of hard work and dedication, I was honoured to formally open the finished memorial wood at their invitation.

The wood is now teeming with wildlife and a beautiful, calm place that local people can come and enjoy. Boardwalks have been built, a natural pond created and pathways have been cleared. Bird and bat boxes have also been installed.

Having long supported Mid Norfolk communities seeking to increase the number of Open/Green Spaces in our part of the world, it was a pleasure to join everyone this past weekend. Everyone involved can be deeply proud of their achievements, and I look forward to seeing the wood serve its local community for years to come.

Please see the below video from the event.

One of the big challenges here in Mid Norfolk for people looking for work is accessibility and awareness of what jobs are available – particularly in the more rural parts of the area.

That’s why, following the success of last year’s brilliant Jobs Fair in Watton (at which over 300 jobseekers met with almost forty employers from the Dereham-Watton/Wayland-Attleborough-Wymondham area), I was delighted to support the Wayland Chamber of Commerce, alongside the local Dereham DWP Jobcentre and local councillors, as they staged the event again this past Friday.

The event was another great success – with hundreds of local people attending, from school leavers to those with more complex needs, and from short/long term employed through to those simply interested in finding a new career challenge or opportunity.

There are a whole range of exciting jobs here in Mid Norfolk, with more being created each and every day, and the Jobs Fair served as a wonderful opportunity to connect yet more local people to those opportunities, helping local businesses and jobseekers alike. Of those employers represented, there were:

• Norfolk Constabulary
• Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (with the Prince’s Trust)
• HMP Wayland
• Cranswick Food
• Breckland Council
• GE-BE Transport
• Apprenticeships Norfolk
• Center Parcs
• Belvoir
• Banham Poultry
• Paul's Cycles
• Independence Matters
• White's Training Services
• Pride Homecare
• Thorp House Care Home
• Poultec
• The Sourdough Company
• Avon Cosmetics
• NR Fitness Gym
• ESS - Compass Group
• Flagship Housing
• University of East Anglia
• SERCO
• Traditional Norfolk Poultry
• Tesco
• Lotus
• Buckingham Lodge Care Home

As you can see, they come from a wide variety of fields – both public and private sector – and all with jobs in and around Watton, Wayland and Mid Norfolk.

With teas, coffees and light refreshments provided by local Watton High Street business, Cafe Contrast, the Queen’s Memorial Hall in Watton was buzzing for the event – which we hope to hold again in future.

For more information, please view my video below.

Are you an upcoming school leaver, someone in search of a job, or even someone just looking for a new exciting career or opportunity?

Are you a local business interested in speaking to LOCAL people about opportunities in their area.

Then Wayland Chamber of Commerce want to hear from YOU!

Following the success of last year’s brilliant Jobs Fair in Watton (at which over 300 jobseekers met with almost forty employers from the Dereham-Watton/Wayland-Attleborough-Wymondham area), the Wayland Chamber of Commerce are once again arranging this wonderful event – supported by the local Department for Work and Pensions team, local councillors and myself.

If you are interested in attending, please do get in touch via george.freeman.mp@parliament.uk I would be delighted to put you in touch with the Wayland Chamber and DWP teams.

UPDATE 30th May 2023

Further to my previous posts in relation to the campaign against the ‘Garden Village/New Town’ proposals that may be resurfacing around North Elmham, Billingford and Bintree, I welcomed the brilliant article in the EDP today, highlighting that more than 30 parish councils have now united behind that campaign – up from the c.15 it was just a few weeks ago.

See the article here.

I remain firmly committed to working with and supporting local parishes, and local councillors Bill Borrett and Gordon Bambridge, as we collectively raise awareness on why this highly rural location is completely inappropriate and unsustainable for an industrial scale development of several thousand houses.

To see my previous webstories and updates on this issue, please scroll down below the picture of the submission.

To stay up to date with my ongoing campaign efforts on this issue, please do regularly check back in on my  Planning and Protecting Our Rural Landscape and Heritage’ campaign page here.

UPDATE 18th May 2023

Ahead of the deadline of the ‘Breckland Local Plan Update – Issues and Options Report for Consultation’, I have written to the Leader of Breckland Council to ensure that my opposition, in support for local councillors Bill Borrett and Gordon Bambridge and the c.15 concerned Parish Councils and communities in the area, is formally recorded and considered as part of the process.

Please see my submission below.

(To see my previous webstories on this issue, please scroll down below the picture of the submission).

UPDATE – 3rd May 2023

Further to my previous posts on 5th and 24th April 2023, I am delighted to be able to share the below article published in the EDP this week – further highlighting why I, and many others, are opposing the idea of a new Garden Town to the north of Dereham.

A link to the online article can be found here.

UPDATE – 24th April 2023

Further to my post on 5th April 2023, I am delighted to be able to share the below Op-Ed I recently wrote for the Dereham Times – outlining in further detail why I am opposing the idea of a Garden Town to the north of Dereham.

5th APRIL 2023 WEBSTORY

For decades now, our planning system hasn’t been delivering the housing we need, in the places we need it, for the people who need it. For too long, the system appears to have been driven by the national volume house builders who too often make their money from land banking and high density commuter housing estates on the edge of existing developments – rather than through a proper planning system run to deliver for the people who need planning to work for them, instead of being done TO them.

I’ve long been concerned by the amount of development coming to areas like our own in rural Mid Norfolk – which is often inappropriate, “industrial” in scale and unsustainable. While most of our villages can take and are indeed up for (when properly asked) taking some additional new housing (without which our communities will gradually fade away), I fundamentally believe that more needs to be done to give local communities a greater say in how they develop in the years to come (with greater protections), which is why I have been so vocal in my opposition to the way so many large national developers abuse and take advantage of the planning system to dump such inappropriate and unsustainable developments on our towns and villages.
 
That’s why, through The Norfolk Way project I set up before I became an MP, I have been so vocal in advocating for a better model of growth and development that places greater emphasis on delivering small pockets of housing of the type and aesthetic desired by local communities, and in the places they earmark. I truly believe the spirit of Localism enshrined in the 2011 Localism Act should be enhanced, with the Act itself strengthened to remove some of the loopholes we’ve seen exploited. (To read more about my views in full, please visit my ‘Planning and Protecting Our Rural Heritage and Landscape’ campaign page here) I was delighted to see the NPPF reformed in the autumn by Michael Gove to give more power to local planners.

I continue to make the case I have long made that the right way to plan housing is to give local councils, democratically accountable to the local residents they serve, the freedoms and incentives to plan properly for the right sort of housing and growth where it is needed ie:

• around hotspots of economic growth
• on brownfield sites in areas needing regeneration
• around growth towns with the infrastructure and services available to sustain further growth
• in villages with a Neighbourhood Plan setting out the amount of housing they are happy/able to take and which ensures affordable & appropriate local housing for local workers and residents

That’s what the Breckland and South Norfolk Council Local Plans rightly aim to do. What we don’t need in rural Norfolk is massive commuter estate “New Towns” dumped in the middle of rural mud Norfolk without proper infrastructure, facilities, sustainable transport links or fit with the existing pattern of development.

The North Elmham New Town

The North Elmham New Town would also represent massive development of the precious River Wensum chalk stream habitats (not to mention a Site of Specific Scientific Interest).

That’s why I was delighted to chair a meeting on Friday in North Elmham with local parish councils and local councillors Bill Borrett and Cllr Gordon Bambridge to make clear that the idea of a new town in the area will NOT be supported by ourselves as elected local  representatives.

Bill and Gordon confirmed that Breckland Council are NOT zoning this area for major housebuilding, and will oppose a re-application of the New Town as we did successfully last time it was proposed.

New Towns and Garden Villages

Whilst there are places in the UK where there may be a strong case for a new generation of garden towns and villages, with all of the necessary infrastructure and transport links (either to drive regeneration as in parts of the post-industrial North, or to alleviate the pressure around major growth hits spots like Cambridge), North Elmham is not a sustainable location.

I can think of several possible sites in East Anglia that could perhaps take such a garden town or village: specifically the dilapidated station sites on the Cambridge-Ely-Brandon-Thetford-Attleborough-Wymondham-Norwich railway line – as part of the Oxford-Cambridge East-West Railway Development Company I have championed over the years, and especially during my time as Minister for the Future of Transport at the DfT.
 
However, I’ve also been very clear that, for any such development, we need to be sure that:

1. Any such developments must avoid the loss of ancient woodland and high quality farmland
2. We see a serious commitment to Net Zero and building into the plans a higher quality, cleaner, greener standard of life – not continuing to same old, lazy model of house dumping that sees thousands of additional vehicles tearing through old country lanes and causing more congestion and rat-running
3. There is serious investment into public and private infrastructure – with proper road, rail, cycle and walking routes
4. Any such development is planned appropriately and sustainably, and that it makes sense in the wider community context.

 
I have not seen any evidence to suggest that a garden town or village would be appropriate in this part of Mid Norfolk, and given the rural and inaccessible nature of North Elmham and the surrounding villages, the already serious congestion on the nearby road network and the nationally significant environmental and habitat importance of the Wensum Valley, I cannot envisage any circumstances in which this idea could be taken seriously.

To my mind, it would make far more sense for such a significant level of growth to be focussed down closer to the A11 Corridor – which Breckland Council themselves have, rightly, recognised is the key growth artery in our region and have tried to focus the bulk of the district’s future growth. I know the Leader of Breckland Council, Cllr Sam Chapman-Allen, and both Cllr Bill Borrett and Cllr Gordon Bambridge strongly support this.

That’s why I was delighted to join the c12 local parish councils representing the areas that would be affected by this idea to make clear my opposition.

Next Steps

At the meeting we agreed some important Next Steps:

• To reconvene a meeting of ALL the parish councils in the affected area after the forthcoming local elections on May 4th to make sure all write to Breckland Council formally to express their concerns.
• Bill and Gordon and I will liaise to ensure all the local residents who object have their objections properly acknowledged by BDC.
• I will invite my neighbouring MP, Jerome Mayhew, to join that follow-up meeting given a number of his Broadland communities are in close proximity to the site around North Elmham and would also be affected.
• I will write to Michael Gove (Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) and the Minister for Housing to make clear why any New Towns and Garden Villages should only be  delivered in the right locations with the associated connectivity, infrastructure and services required) and not in inappropriate locations with the obvious environmental, sustainability and transport issues this scale of development would inevitably threaten.

 Please be assured that I will keep on this in the weeks and months ahead.

Decarbonising buildings, especially our homes, is a vitally important part of the UK’s journey towards Net Zero emissions. However, how that decarbonisation is delivered is equally important.

That’s why I have been taking such a keen interest in a case brought to my attention by a group of local Flagship Housing residents in Weasenham concerning the difficulties they had experienced as a result of the installation of ground source heat pumps in their homes.

Having previously convened and chaired two meetings with residents and Flagship (back in February and March – see more here and here), I spoke with the Managing Director of Flagship Housing/Victory Homes, Adrian Barber, again this past week to ask for an update on the progress being made as work continues to ty and rectify the problems that have been encountered.

While there have been some delays to the progress being made (due to staff sickness), I appreciate Adrian’s ongoing, personal attention to this issue – with him committing to provide me with a full, detailed update as soon as possible. I have reiterated my desire to meet with him, residents and the Flagship team again once the works have been completed – in order to review the progress and confirm all is in order, or if additional works are required.

Rest assured, I will continue to work local residents to help ensure these new heating systems are up and running properly as soon as possible – and that all of their concerns are resolved.

Delighted and hugely grateful to the Health Secretary Steve Barclay, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt for the announcement that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn will be rebuilt as part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme!

Five new hospitals will be rebuilt by 2030 as part of the programme, which will see a record £20bn+ of investment going into hospital infrastructure. Brilliant news that QEH will be one of them.

Another Government pledge and commitment being delivered.

Delighted to have supported colleagues James Wild MP and the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP as they have driven forward this campaign. The hospital rebuild is a major boost for Norfolk’s long term healthcare provision – and comes on top of the confirmation we already have that the James Paget University Hospital in Gorlestone is also being prioritised for a rebuild as part of the programme.

To read more about the announcement, and the New Hospital Programme more generally, please visit the EDP here and the GOV.UK website here.

Throughout my time as a local MP, I have consistently stated my belief that new developments in our rural towns and villages must be sustainable, accompanied by the necessary infrastructure and services required to support both it and the pre-existing community.

Health provision is an important part of this discussion. Local communities, as well as those moving into new developments, need to know that they can access the local health services they need, when they need them.

That’s why I was delighted to host the next ATTCARE virtual summit this past Friday – with local councillors and representatives from ATTCARE, Attleborough Town Council, Attleborough Surgeries, Norfolk and Waveney NHS Integrated Care Board, Norfolk Community Health and Care Trust, Norfolk County Council, Breckland Council and Homes England all in attendance.

It is vital that there is a proper strategic plan for health and social care in Attleborough – especially given the scale of growth coming to the town. I welcomed the opportunity to reconvene this group, with additional attendees, to discuss in greater depth the pressures and challenges already being felt, and explore what can and must be done if we are to ensure that local residents have the services they require in the years to come. Together, local stakeholders made clear to all of the relevant authorities why Attleborough must see increased support, investment and action if it is to be able to cope with the development on its way.

Once again, the discussions were incredible positive – with working groups being established to pursue follow-up actions and the next meeting set to be scheduled for September.

With the growth coming to the town, the local health services must be supported. I am determined to do what I can to support ATTCARE and their partners as they seek to ensure that happens – and look forward to providing further updates in the coming weeks and months.

To read more about my previous meeting with ATTCARE, please click here.