While the House has returned this week following the Summer Recess, the campaign opposing the North Elmham New Town proposals very much continues – which is why I have been in contact with the Campaign Against New Town campaign group (CANT) again this week.
The Government’s announcement last week regarding Nutrient Neutrality (see my views in full here) was a major, positive step forward for the building industry, especially those small, local developers that do so much important work. However, I want to reassure my concerned constituents that I do not believe the announcement changes anything with regards to the North Elmham New Town proposals.
The North Elmham New Town would see such industrial scale development in deep, rural Mid Norfolk and that’s why I am wholly united with the CANT group, and local councillors Gordon Bambridge and Bill Borrett, in opposing the proposals. Such large scale development in such a rural area would be completely unacceptable and unsuitable – fundamentally altering the character of a number of communities, while piling the pressure on dozens more with the increased congestion and demand for local, already stretched services, and also having a significant negative effect upon the local environment, habitats, and landscapes.
Breckland Council rightly threw the North Elmham New Town out last time it came up and made clear that they are focussing new housing on the A11 Nor-Cam Railway Innovation Corridor and NOT in the Wensum Valley.
I am determined to continue working with CANT, Bill and Gordon to ensure that the legitimate concerns of our local communities are being treated with the seriousness they deserve, and to ensure Breckland are once again armed with the information they need to once again throw these proposals out.
Having liaised with neighbouring MP Jerome Mayhew (who, himself, has a number of concerned villages in his Broadland constituency) over the summer, I look forward to driving forward this active and ongoing campaign again in the weeks and months ahead.
Please see all of my recent work on this campaign below.
UPDATE 20th June 2023
For too long we have seen developments forced through by national housebuilders against the wishes of local people and the Local Council’s Plan.
That’s why, as part of my wider campaign efforts on Planning and the protection of our rural landscapes and heritage, I continue to be so actively involved in the local campaign opposing the New Town proposals that look to be resurfacing around North Elmham, Billingford and Bintree – holding another meeting in North Elmham this past Friday, with Cllr Bill Borrett, Cllr Gordon Bambridge and representatives of the c30 villages that would be affected were a New Town (disguised as a “Garden Village”) built in this deeply rural part of Mid Norfolk.
Breckland Council rightly threw the North Elmham New Town out last time it came up and made clear that they are focussing new housing on the A11 NorCam Railway Innovation Corridor and NOT in the Wensum Valley.
I am determined to make sure the Parish Councils and residents in the c30 villages that would be affected are heard when they make very clear that they do NOT want to see a New Town in their deeply rural area as an Option in the next Local Plan – and welcomed the opportunity to update the local campaign on my efforts since our last meeting (detailed in the webstories below), as well as to discuss next steps.
To see the EDP’s latest piece on the campaign, please click here.
To stay up to date with all my work on planning and protecting our local environment and heritage, please visit my campaign page here.
UPDATE 20th June 2023
As our collective efforts continue on the campaign opposing the new ‘Garden Village/New Town’ proposals that may be resurfacing around North Elmham, Billingford and Bintree, I am looking forward to joining representatives of many of the deeply concerned c.35 local parishes (in the north of Mid Norfolk, as well as just across the border in Broadland) again later this week, with Cllr Bill Borrett and Cllr Gordon Bambridge.
It will be an opportunity to update local community figures on my recent conversation with Jerome Mayhew, who’s Broadland constituency also contains a number of parishes concerned by the proposals that may be coming forward. I also look forward to sharing details of letter I recently wrote to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP) as well – making clear my belief that new Garden Village/Town settlements should be focussed on key transport routes with the ability to sustainably cater for them, rather than in deeply rural areas with minimal infrastructures and service and which have virtually no ability to improve them without causing untold environmental and existing community damage.
Rest assured, I remain firmly committed to working with Bill, Gordon and the local parishes, and will post further updates in due course.
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:
- Any such developments must avoid the loss of ancient woodland and high quality farmland
- 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
- There is serious investment into public and private infrastructure – with proper road, rail, cycle and walking routes
- 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.