Green light for major Aylsham housing plans

Proposals to build more than 250 new homes in Aylsham have been given the go-ahead by councillors.

Broadland District Council’s planning committee voted in favour for the major development on land off Norwich Road, despite concerns raised by Aylsham Town Council, a GP surgery and residents.

Norfolk Homes will build 252 houses, made up of two, three and four bedroom homes, and Saffron Housing Trust will operate a 90-unit housing with care scheme for older people.

The committee met on Wednesday (November 6) to consider the joint application for the site currently made up of arable farmland and the derelict Aylsham Lodge motel.

The site was identified for a housing development as part of the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP), but has generated opposition in the town.

In February 2023, Aylsham Town Council said the application should be withdrawn or refused, citing a total of 14 reasons – including concerns about the number of houses, increased traffic, and pressure on the town’s existing infrastructures and services.

In a second consultation, carried out in July 2024, the town council raised concerns about the impact of extra residents on local GP surgeries.

Speaking at Wednesday’s Broadland planning committee meeting, Aylsham Town Council vice-chair Mary Evans said her council felt the application was not ready to be approved.

The application was due to be considered in September but was postponed because of concerns about traffic noise from the A140 affecting properties on the southern edge of the site.

As a result, the plans were revised to move a children’s play area from the north-east of the site to the south,  and relocating nine properties from the area where traffic noise is the highest.

However, Cllr Evans said: “This would put every child’s health at risk. The children playing there would be exposed to high noise levels, which can damage their hearing, as well as exposing the children to high levels of pollution from traffic from the A140. This could also be a safeguarding issue as the repositioned play area is isolated from the housing and not integrated into the development.”

Cllr Evans also raised concerns about noise from air source heat pumps on the site, drainage and whether there would be enough affordable homes.

She added: “At present the plans presented are not specific enough to address the need to strengthen the infrastructure or to protect the wellbeing of prospective residents.

“As a consequence, Aylsham Town Council does not feel that the planning application is ready to be approved.”

There will be three areas of open space, including a children’s playground, and an area of 0.25 hectares will be given to Aylsham Town Council to create a “transport hub”. Just over nine per cent of the development will be classed as affordable housing.

There will be two main access points to the site – one approximately 125 metres north of the roundabout and the other around 85 metres south of Copeman Road.

The meeting heard that the Lead Local Flood Authority and Anglian Water had no objections to the application.

Norfolk Homes has pledged to improve walking and cycling routes in the area and a zebra crossing will be built to help people cross Norwich Road to John of Gaunt Infant and Nursery School.

Aylsham Town Councillor Kay Montandon, who is also a member of the Aylsham Climate Emergency (ACE) group also spoke at the meeting.

She said: “Apart from the mitigation of the air source heat pumps, there is no implementation of solar generation on the site and this is to the detriment of the town. The town’s carbon footprint will be increased drastically.

“Air source heat pumps do not charge electric vehicles or run appliances so, therefore, the carbon load of this development will be massive in comparison to the rest of the town. We are increasing our environmental impact and that is not what we want as a town.”

Referring to the 0.25 hectare area of land to be given to the town council for a transport hub, Cllr Montandon said better consultation was needed as she felt a bigger site would be required to allow for a minibus to run shuttle services to the town centre. She also called for a 20mph speed limit to be extended to the roundabout.

Dr Nazia Ahmed, a GP partner at the Market Surgery, raised concerns about the impact the number of homes and care facility would have on its services.

She said: “While fully accepting that people have got to live somewhere, and the elderly have got to be provided for as well, I’m questioning this particular development because it doesn’t take into any account the medical facilities that are available in Aylsham.

“The town has grown over the years I’ve been a GP in Aylsham. Our practice list size has gone up from seven and a half thousand to 10,000 over the years because there has been a lot of new building.

“In that time we have had twice to do internal reorganisation to have more consulting rooms and to employ more clinicians.

“Apart from the fact we’ve got no space to go at the moment and we can’t employ anymore clinicians because you can’t recruit people.”

As part of the proposals, the developers have agreed to pay £275,000 to increase the size of the Market Surgery.

However, Dr Ahmed added: “That implies you can actually build on the site. We’ve done internal reorganisation twice over the past few years because we’ve been told by planning we can’t increase the footprint of our surgery because of parking spaces. Our surgery cannot physically be made bigger.”

Addressing the committee about the application, Broadland District Council Assistant Director of Planning Ben Burgess said: “This allocation has gone through all the processes of the GNLP and been adopted.

“We’ve got to a point where we consider Aylsham to be a reasonable place to have this number of houses built within it.”

The GNLP also includes a site off Burgh Road, where proposals for up to 250 new homes have been made.

Responding to the Norwich Road application, planning committee vice-chair Cllr Eleanor Laming said: “There is a complicated balance here and I think we do have to recognise there have been very many objections from local residents, particularly to increasing the size of Aylsham generally and putting pressure on the facilities there and the fact we are losing green space. But this site is allocated in the GNLP as a site for housing and the provision of the extra care scheme will benefit the district. We know we do have a population that’s ageing and it does sound a very good scheme.”

The applicants were represented at the meeting by Alan Presslee, of Cornerstone Planning.

He said: “These detailed proposals have been long in preparation and consideration through extensive public consultation, pre and post-application engagement with the community and the town council, various stages of master planning processes and, of course, the Greater Norwich Local Plan process, which the site was allocated for development upon its adoption.”

Addressing the concerns about the play area, Mr Presslee said it would be possible to move it to another part of the site.

DEVELOPMENT SITE: The derelict Aylsham Lodge motel building is on part of the site, off Norwich Road, to be redeveloped for housing. Picture: HSR PHOTOGRAPHY