Question 6

Question 6 asks: What areas do you consider to be appropriate for additional growth and what infrastructure, services and amenities would need to be prioritised to enable growth in these locations?

Pick two or three points that match what you know. Write them in your own words. Do not paste this list.

Where growth should go instead

• Direct additional growth first to brownfield land, regeneration sites and places that already have spare infrastructure.

• Do not treat the Yare valley between Costessey, Bowthorpe, Bawburgh and Colney as an appropriate location for a further cluster of housing.

• “Urban fringe” is not the same thing as a suitable growth area if the roads, sewers, schools and GPs are already under strain.

This is a cluster, not one field

• Land north of New Road / east of the A47 (Call for Sites ref. 25801) is being promoted for up to 800 homes. It was considered before and was not allocated in the adopted plan.

• Other promotions in the same corridor include land south of Town House Road, land north of New Road / west of West End, land east of Roundhouse Way / south of Colney Lane, and a large group of sites between Little Melton, Colney and Cringleford.

• If each parcel is judged on its own, the cumulative effect on the valley is missed. Ask for the cluster to be assessed together.

Why this corridor is a poor growth location

• It sits against Charter Wood and looks across New Road to the Bawburgh and Colney Lakes country park (policy BAW2) and the County Wildlife Site chain.

• Parts of New Road and the valley floor already flood. This is floodplain and river-valley landscape, not spare housing land.

• The catchment is already subject to nutrient neutrality and wastewater constraints.

• New Road, Barnard Road and the A47 junctions are already congested. Bawburgh is a small village and cannot absorb urban-fringe growth of this scale.

Infrastructure that would have to come first — and currently does not

• Wastewater treatment capacity, proven before any preference for sites in this catchment.

• GP and primary-school places, not a promise of “contributions” after the houses are built.

• A transport plan that deals with New Road, Barnard Road and the A47 together, not site by site.

• Green infrastructure and alternative greenspace identified before housing is added next to the country park. BAW2 should not be used both as a reason to put housing beside it and as the mitigation for that housing.

What you can add from your own life

• Where you live (Costessey, Bowthorpe, Bawburgh or nearby).

• The roads, paths or services you actually use.

• Flooding, sewage, appointments or school places you have seen first-hand.

Question 17

Question 22 is the catch-all: anything missing from this consultation, or any other comment on GNLP 2045.

Use it to name the land and reserve your detailed site comments for 2027. Write in your own words. Do not paste this list.

What this consultation does not cover

• There is no site-allocations question at this stage. That does not mean the Yare corridor should be ignored until 2027.

• Ask the authorities to record now that a cluster of promotions has already been submitted around New Road, Town House Road, Bawburgh Lakes, Colney and Little Melton.

• Say you will comment on individual parcels at Regulation 23, expected June–July 2027, but that the cluster should shape the evidence and the growth strategy before then.

Name the land

• Site 25801: land north of New Road / east of the A47 / west of Chapel Break / south of the Hampdens. Promoted by Wain Estates for up to 800 homes.

• Similar land was considered before (historic GNLP0581 / GNLP2043) and was not allocated in the adopted plan.

• Neighbouring promotions already on the public record include land south of Town House Road, land north of New Road / west of West End, land east of Roundhouse Way / south of Colney Lane, and a large group of sites between Little Melton, Colney and Cringleford.

• If you have a map, attach it. If you do not know every site number, describe the land in plain English.

What should not be missed

• The adopted country park at Bawburgh and Colney Lakes (BAW2) sits in the middle of this cluster, with County Wildlife Sites and Charter Wood next to it.

• Cumulative traffic, flood, wastewater, nutrient, service and visitor-pressure effects will not show up if each promotion is assessed alone.

• Bawburgh parish takes a large part of the dashed site even though promoters describe it as Costessey.

What you want the authorities to do

• Treat the Yare valley between Costessey, Bowthorpe, Bawburgh and Colney as a constraint in the growth strategy, not as spare urban-fringe capacity.

• Screen out, or treat as a significant constraint, sites adjoining or functionally linked to BAW2 and the valley wildlife sites.

• Keep you on the list for the 2027 sites consultation.

What you can add from your own life

• That you live in Costessey, Bowthorpe, Bawburgh or nearby and will want to comment again when sites are assessed.

• Any local fact the scoping documents have not mentioned.

• A request that Costessey Town Council and Bawburgh Parish Council are treated as key consultees on this cluster.

Question 16

Question 16 asks how the plan should support: better access to housing, jobs, services and community facilities; wastewater treatment capacity and nutrient neutrality; and clean power / net zero.

Pick the parts you know about. Write them in your own words. Do not paste this list.

Wastewater and nutrient neutrality

• Treat wastewater capacity and nutrient neutrality as a strategic constraint, not a problem to be fixed after sites in this catchment are preferred.

• The Yare corridor around New Road, Bawburgh Lakes, Colney and Costessey already sits in a constrained catchment. Adding a cluster of promotions here, including site 25801 for up to 800 homes, would increase foul-water and nutrient load before capacity is proven.

• “Contributions” and future upgrade promises are not the same as spare treatment capacity now.

• Ask the authorities to show, in the evidence base, which treatment works would serve this cluster and whether they can take more housing.

Access to services and daily life

• Accessibility means being able to reach a GP, a school, a job and a shop without adding another car to New Road, Barnard Road and the A47 junctions.

• Costessey, Bowthorpe and Bawburgh already feel the pressure on medical provision, school places and local roads. Another large promotion on the north side of New Road would land on the same services.

• Bawburgh is a small village. It does not have the services to absorb urban-fringe growth of this scale, even if the dashed site reads as Costessey on a promoter’s map.

• Improved access should mean putting homes where buses, cycle routes and spare infrastructure already exist — not stretching the same junctions and the same surgeries further.

Clean power and net zero

• Building a new greenfield cluster on the edge of the valley works against net zero if residents will be car-dependent for most trips.

• If the plan is serious about clean power, it should not prefer sites that need new roads across a river valley before it prefers brownfield land closer to jobs and services.

• Any growth location should show how it will connect to existing public transport and to the city / research park without dumping more peak-hour traffic onto the A47.

What this means for the plan

• Do not prefer sites in this catchment until wastewater, nutrient neutrality and service capacity are evidenced for the whole cluster, not plot by plot.

• Put the infrastructure test in front of the site-selection test.

• Use this question to put New Road / Town House Road / Bawburgh Lakes on the record as a constrained corridor, not as spare capacity.

What you can add from your own life

• Trouble getting a GP appointment, a school place, or through the A47 junctions.

• Flooding or sewage problems you have seen on New Road or nearby.

• How you actually travel to work, school or the shops from Costessey, Bowthorpe or Bawburgh.

Question 19

Question 17 asks whether the plan should set demanding water-efficiency standards; higher or new standards for nature recovery, including allocating sites for nature recovery or biodiversity enhancement; and identify sites for enhanced green infrastructure, including Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG), plus local green-infrastructure standards.

Pick the parts you know about. Write them in your own words. Do not paste this list.

Nature recovery and the Yare corridor

• The plan should treat the Yare valley between Costessey, Bowthorpe, Bawburgh and Colney as a nature-recovery and green-infrastructure corridor, not as leftover land for housing.

• Bawburgh and Colney Lakes are already allocated as a country park (policy BAW2) and sit in a chain of County Wildlife Sites. That designation should be protected and extended, not used as a backdrop for a new cluster of estates.

• Charter Wood and the valley floor are part of the same green break. Housing on the north side of New Road, and on the other promotions around Town House Road, West End, Colney and Little Melton, would squeeze that break from both sides.

• Ask the plan to allocate or safeguard land for nature recovery in this corridor, rather than leaving it to be picked off parcel by parcel.

Green infrastructure and SANG

• Identify alternative greenspace and SANG before any more housing is added next to BAW2.

• The country park must not be used twice: once as a reason to put housing beside it, and again as the mitigation for that housing.

• Extra homes on site 25801 and the surrounding promotions would increase visitor pressure on the lakes, the valley paths and Charter Wood. That pressure should be measured for the whole cluster, not for each field on its own.

• Local green-infrastructure standards should include river-valley and country-park settings, not just a quantity of open space inside a new estate.

Water

• Support the most demanding water-efficiency standards the plan can lawfully set.

• Higher efficiency inside new houses does not remove the problem if those houses are then put in a constrained river-valley catchment.

• Water standards and nature-recovery standards should work together. Do not tighten tap fittings in policy while opening the floodplain and the lakes edge to more growth.

What this means for the plan

• Set higher nature-recovery and green-infrastructure standards, and apply them to this corridor first.

• Do not prefer urban-fringe sites next to BAW2 until alternative greenspace has been identified and the cumulative effect on the valley has been assessed.

• Use this question to put on record that the Yare corridor needs protection and extension, not another ring of housing.

What you can add from your own life

• Whether you walk Charter Wood, the lakes or the valley paths.

• How busy those paths already feel.

• Wildlife, wet ground or quiet landscape you actually see from New Road, Bawburgh or Bowthorpe.

Question 22

Question 19 asks whether the scope of any proposed evidence studies should change, and whether other evidence should be updated or commissioned for GNLP 2045.

Pick the studies that matter to you. Write them in your own words. Do not paste this list.

Assess the cluster, not each field

• Commission a cluster assessment of Call for Sites parcels around New Road, Town House Road, Bawburgh Lakes, Colney and Little Melton — including site 25801 — instead of sifting them one by one.

• The evidence should show the combined effect on the valley, not a separate “acceptable” score for every pink shape on the map.

• Map the promotions against BAW2, the County Wildlife Site chain, Charter Wood, the floodplain and the A47 / New Road / Barnard Road network in one study.

Environment and water

• Update flood-risk and surface-water evidence for New Road and the Yare valley floor, including how several promotions together would change runoff.

• Update wastewater and nutrient-neutrality evidence for the whole corridor before any of these sites are treated as reasonable options.

• Update visitor-pressure and green-infrastructure evidence for Bawburgh and Colney Lakes. Extra housing next to the country park is not a free good.

• Refresh the habitat and wildlife evidence for the County Wildlife Sites and the wider valley, including how the sites are functionally linked.

Infrastructure and movement

• Commission transport evidence that tests New Road, Barnard Road and the A47 junctions as one system, not as separate site accesses.

• Include GP, school and community-facility capacity for Costessey, Bowthorpe and Bawburgh in the infrastructure evidence, not only a later “contributions” line.

• Show which treatment works and which roads would actually serve this cluster.

How the evidence should be used

• Change the site-assessment scope so that adjoining or functionally linked promotions cannot be waved through in isolation.

• Do not wait until 2027 to notice that the Yare corridor is being asked to take a ring of growth.

• Put this request on the record now, while the authorities are still deciding what evidence to collect.

What you can add from your own life

• Flooding, standing water or sewage problems you have seen.

• Junctions and school-run routes that already fail at peak times.

• How the lakes, Charter Wood or New Road are used day to day, which the desk studies may miss.