REALISTIC REEPHAM
Campaigning on behalf of our residents to keep Reepham special
Find us on Facebook @realisticreepham
Reepham is a special place…
We believe that any development in our lovely town should be appropriate and sustainable
Realistic Reepham was formed in 2011 to give residents a voice: we are ordinary people who live here and want to see Reepham thrive. Our intention is to promote awareness of the huge changes that threaten our beautiful Georgian town and surrounding countryside and landscapes, which once destroyed will be gone forever. We're not against new housing, but do oppose huge and unnecessary development on the scale being proposed.
We are in favour of realistic and sustainable development that will provide economic, social and environmental benefits that are consistent with the local character of the town and surrounding landscape.
We support building a smaller number of houses on existing brownfield sites or other suitable areas within the existing settlement limit, based on the views of the Town Council, residents, traders, local businesses and community groups.
Join us by visiting and liking our @Realistic Reepham Facebook page or email us at info@realisticreepham.co.uk.
Latest News
Broomhill Lane Development
Status: Consultation for the latest Application Submission ENDS 19th MAY 2021
Development for 141 Houses now including Road Widening of Broomhill Lane
Planning Application reference 20200847
2 week extension granted as the submitted detail is incomplete
PA20200847 - Proposed Residential Development of 141 houses with associated open space, highway and landscaping works plus extension to existing Reepham Cemetery
We have been very busy in the background mostly ensuring that proper process is followed
Sadly we have found over 20 points which appear to be blatently ignored by the Applicant in regards to the planning guidelines.
Also we find that Broadland Planners will not provide us with answers to issues we have been pursuing for several months.
We are currently seeking legal advise on these items and issues
The current consultation can be found here CLICK HERE
You can have your say by using the portal link above or by the below
Email planning@broadland.gov.uk
Write to Broadland District Council, Thorpe Lodge, Yarmouth Road, Norwich, NR7 0DU quoting Planning Application reference 20200847
YOU ARE WELCOME TO USE ANY OF THE CONTENT ON THIS WEBSITE FOR THE PURPOSES OF REGISTERING YOUR OBJECTIONS
Pending applications:
High School application for the shell of a Sports Hall
See our Facebook page posts for News updates and commentary from members
Key Links
Reepham Town Council
Broadland District Council
OUR CORE AIMS
Providing a collective voice to ensure Reepham residents' views are heard and taken into account.
Helping to ensure that Reepham retains its distinctive character and its strength as a community in a constantly changing world.
Helping to ensure that the beautiful and varied countryside around the town is not harmed.
Working with Reepham Town Council and other groups in creating a local plan, and encouraging residents to voice their hopes and wishes for the future.
Thoroughly researching and keeping residents fully informed of local development proposals and their implications for the town, its infrastructure and the surrounding landscape.
Campaigning to keep future residential and other development realistic – of appropriate scale and character, and within current settlement limits.
Liaising with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Norfolk Wildlife Trust and other conservation and campaign groups in Norfolk and beyond.
It becomes more obvious to us that Reepham and in particular the Broomhill Lane site are perfect examples of
WHY WOULD YOU BUILD HERE?
Below are key points which amplify just that;
· Single access to the proposed estate is adjacent to a High School of c1100 pupils, adding to problems at a junction which is already very congested, particularly at peak school arrival and departure times.
· Reepham’s medieval road layout, with its SIGNIFICANT traffic choke points, offers limited scope to make best-practice improvements.
· Reepham is the least well-served Key Service Centre for transport: no train service; 3 miles from the nearest A road. Bus services are extremely limited.
· There are very few employment opportunities within walking distance of the proposed site. Most residents will drive cars or vans to work.
· The likeliest route for most commuters by car will be either southwards on a poorly-maintained, twisting C road, with two single-lane bridges and several severe passing points, or north through a pinch point cross-roads, tight bends and a church wall that is regularly damaged by traffic. It is often a highly skilled and very time-consuming task for 2 lorries to pass.
· Reepham has the lowest Deprivation Score for all towns and villages in the region, meaning air quality is exemplary (see Norfolk Insights).
· £3m has been spent on Eco Projects in Reepham. Adding 141 houses does not help achieve a Carbon Neutral footprint.
· The site is on the opposite side of a hill to the Sewerage Plant, so a full-time, expensive, noisy and certainly not eco-friendly pumping station will be needed.
· The sustainable drainage system (SUDS) from the development would drain downhill into a beck that feeds Whitwell Common SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), just 1.5miles downstream.
· There is a known flooding issue on a property at the foot of Broomhill Lane, downhill from the site.
· The Viability Study to understand the economics of this site is flawed and apparently can only be seen to deliver profit if it reduces the Site Allocation target from 33% to 20% affordable housing and increases the quantity of houses from 100/120 to 141.
· Democratic responses of the townsfolk against the Site Allocation and the numerous and conflicting Planning Applications mount to nearly 1600 individual submissions to Broadland DC. All are negative.
· There are Holding Objections from both Sports England and NCC Highways, both obligatory Consultees
· Removal of grassed playing field for School & College students is proposed, because the applicant needs to significantly increase the houses on the site to make the economics viable. By law, this playing field MUST be replaced prior to Construction. The Lease will be withdrawn in the Summer of 2021 by the landowner, meaning the cost of a replacement field will be paid by the Education Authority out of your taxes. This wipes out much of the £900,000 CIL (i.e, the money that developers have to pay to help provide community infrastructure) that may be earnt from this site build out. Is this a case of taxes to facilitate private profit?
· Little benefit will come to the Reepham community. Since 2013, 80% of the CIL money goes into a central pool, to be spent on Greater Norwich Infrastructure projects. A Sports Hall used as a bribe will provide community use only for a few people involved in competitive sport.
· Residents’ letters have already pointed out other downsides: an overstretched GP surgery; young pupils bussed out of Reepham because the Primary School is already full; noise and pollution from construction over several years.
· A view much loved by Reepham residents and visitors will be lost, with new properties packed close to each other.
· Access to the countryside will be lost: at present, Broomhill Lane serves a community need, allowing visitors to park and then walk in an attractive, unspoilt setting, with long views of a rolling countryside. Building 141 houses will end all that.
· Destruction of habitat and food source for farmland birds, owls and animals including small deer, hares and a well-established badger colony.
· Broadland had a Land Supply (for development) of over 9 years, but the recent amalgamation with South Norfolk has reduced that to a little over 5 years. Reepham, therefore, DOESN’T have an organic need for so much extra housing (apart from ‘affordables’, but could suffer as a result of deficient supply outside the Broadland area.
· The current linked applications can be shown to contravene or ignore national or local plans, policies or guidelines in more than 35 ways.*
· Reepham is a town that has managed to grow sympathetically in the past. The recent start to building on the sometimes controversial REP2 site (Reepham Station), which seems to have expanded from 20 dwellings to 35 dwellings plus a care home, would result in a huge, unmanageable increase in the town’s population, if 141 dwellings were also built on Broomhill Lane.
· The character of the LAST UNSPOILT market town in East Anglia, with its 75 Listed buildings and rural surroundings, faces damage from a development threatening the unique characteristics which attract rural tourism to Reepham.
What People Say
CONTACTS
Realistic Reepham is a community organisation set up to support
Reepham residents.
To contact us, fill in and submit this form,
email us at info@realisticreepham.co.uk
or message us via Facebook - @realisticreepham.
