Proposed Development Sites – Heacham
The Borough Council’s emerging Local Plan review requires Heacham to identify sites for an additional 60-70 new dwellings over the period to 2036, and in November 2016 a call for sites was issued to local landowners.
Of the sites put forward, 16 are currently being assessed by the Borough under the Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments (HELAAs). These are key evidence documents which support the preparation of Local Plans. Their purpose is to:
- To establish how much suitable development land there is in an area
- To test if this land could be developed
- Help local planning authorities to understand the level of growth they can plan for
- Identify areas where growth can be accommodated
However, HELAAs are not policy documents and do not determine if land should be allocated for development, or whether planning permission should be granted.
The aim of this consultation event was to seek community views on the preferred location and size of any future developments.
The following sheets provide detail of the sites put forward, their location and size, the developer’s proposal for them, and the comments of the Neighbourhood Planning group who have visited each of them.
I think it’s great to have approval for the Cheney hill development. To be fair Heacham itself is in HUGE need for social housing!!!! For LOCAL families. Families from here are literally being forced out of the area which isn’t fair. It’s not fair on adults to be leaving friends and family and a village we love. It’s also pretty horrible for our children that in some cases possibly need to move schools at crucial times and also lose their close friends and family. It’s a real big shame developers don’t focus purely on social housing. I know we had foreman’s close but that was years ago. And evidently year by year there are families needing more social housing here. If it was primarily social housing there would be less houses built but unfortunately that’s not the case. At the same time a certain percentage has to be social housing out of the purposed number they want to build. Which to families like mine is a god send. It’s another big shame that the houses in Heacham that do occasionally pop up via the Homechoice bidding list don’t get offered to Heacham people first. We have a right to be here after all. So I’m all in favour of the builds on the basis there is a good chunk of affordable housing purely for Heacham people god knows we need it. And I think they should build the social housing first. If the developers want support for their builds they should prioritise the Heacham families in need of housing first.
Thank you for taking the time to comment Hayley – your views will be fed into the developing Neighbourhood Plan. A couple of points. Unfortunately while any new development over a certain size has to provide 15% affordable housing, there is no requirement for this to be social housing. The Neighbourhood Planning Group are also concerned that the Government’s definition of affordable housing still puts it out of the reach of local families on average wages. For this reason we want to change the focus to ‘housing that local people on average wages can afford’. Initial consultation is indicating that there is a preference for starter homes, and small family homes to be developed in Heacham. We hope we can persuade developers to make these of a good, but affordable standard.
Sadly the national criteria for how social housing is allocated changed a number of years ago and priority is now given to those in greatest need, regardless of whether they are local to an area or not, Unfortunately this is something the Neighbourhood Plan cannot influence or change.
Please look out for, and complete, the Residents Questionnaire which is to be distributed in the next few weeks. Responses to this will provide the evidence we need to support the Policies,including those relating to housing, that are developed in the Neighbourhood Plan.
Any proposed additional development to the Hunstanton Road area absolutely must take into account the fact that the roadway itself is very narrow with a single file footpath. Currently when two buses are passing they need to find a wider stretch of road to do so safely. This applies equally to all the heavy goods vehicles using either the Hotel or the Industrial estate. For over three years now the road width has been severely impacted by the current developments causing considerable delay to traffic and anguish to walkers on the narrow pathways. Anyone trying to deliver to houses on Hunstanton Road has found this increasingly stressful as the road is all to often blocked by builders and ancillary vehicles. The PO delivery van alone has had many near misses, and some damage! At the junction HunstantonRoad/Butterfield Way, cars have to wait for the bus to negotiate the curve in the road before they can proceed. This cannot be a satisfactory state of affairs, into which to introduce yet more vehicles.
All developments in Heacham must also take account of the current existing narrow roads that form part of this attractive village, and that many holiday makers park on them, further restricting their width. We do not want to develop the village in such a way that it becomes a fire hazard, which the appropriate fire vehicles cannot access.
Also we do not want ‘affordable housing’, we want housing that will enable our young people to live and grow in an area where they themselves were born. This means changing the definition to that outlined by the Planning Group, and ensuring that we stick to it.
Finally, we need to maintain the clear distinction between Hunstanton and Heacham, not let them simply flow together as one conurbation. We are separate villages with separate identities and we need to maintain that.
Thank you for your comments MaryAnn, which reflect other views that are being expressed during our consultation with residents, and will be fed into the developing Neighbourhood Plan. All of the points you raise will be covered in the Residents Questionnaire which will be delivered to all homes in the village over the next few weeks. The questionnaire, developed following our first two consultation days, focusses in on the issues identified at these events and seeks more detailed opinions on them. Thank you again for taking the time to comment,.