GNLP 2045
What the Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045 means for Costessey & Bowthorpe — and how to respond to the Scoping Consultation by 28 September 2026
The Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045
The Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045 — GNLP 2045 for short — is the new long-term development plan being prepared jointly by Norwich City Council, South Norfolk Council, Broadland District Council and Norfolk County Council. It will decide where new homes, jobs and infrastructure go across Greater Norwich between now and 2045.
Once adopted, the GNLP becomes the rulebook against which planning applications are judged. If a site is allocated for housing in the plan, refusing a matching planning application later becomes very difficult. That is why this plan matters so much for Costessey and Bowthorpe.
Why are the councils doing this when the current GNLP was only adopted recently?
The current adopted plan runs to 2038 and was adopted in March 2024. The councils are now starting a new plan — GNLP 2045 — because national planning rules and the official method for calculating housing need have changed. The new housing need figure for Greater Norwich is substantially higher than the figure used in the adopted plan (2,590 homes per year vs the original 1,920 homes per year - a 35% increase).
That matters here. Land that was dropped from the last review (like our site) can be put forward again.
What are Wain Estates trying to do?
It appears that Wain Estates have decided against submitting a speculative planning application, in favour of promoting the site and getting it included on the new GNLP.
If they can get the site allocated in GNLP 2045, a future planning application becomes far harder to stop.
What stage are we at now?
Current stage: Regulation 20 Scoping Consultation.
Dates: 17 August to 28 September 2026.
Portal: https://gnlp.oc2.uk
This stage asks for views on:
the plan’s vision and objectives
the growth strategy and settlement hierarchy
local policy themes (housing, infrastructure, environment, design)
what evidence the councils should collect
how people should be engaged later
This consultation does not allocate sites. The official documents say so in terms. There are no site-by-site questions at this stage.
A Call for Sites has already run (February–March and June–July 2026). Landowners and promoters submitted hundreds of parcels. Those submissions are on a register for information only. They have not been assessed or preferred. Note: Wain Estates have submitted the site as 25801.
Next stage that does deal with sites: Regulation 23 consultation, expected June–July 2027.
Later stages currently indicated by the authorities:
Gateway 1 self-assessment — 30 October 2026
Proposed plan (Regulation 27) — April–May 2028
Examination — October 2028 to March 2029
Adoption aimed at 30 April 2029
Why should we respond to the Scoping Consultation?
If you wait until 2027, the councils will already have decided:
how they will choose sites
what environmental evidence they will collect
whether the Yare valley and the edge of the allocated country park is treated as a place for more housing or as a constraint
A short response now is a holding marker. It does not stop Wain Estates promoting the land. But it does put on record that this cluster — New Road, Town House Road, Bawburgh Lakes, Charter Wood and the River Yare corridor — needs to be looked at as a whole.
We should be asking the authorities to:
treat the Yare valley between Bawburgh Lakes, Colney and Costessey as not appropriate for a further cluster of allocations
screen out, or treat as a significant constraint, sites adjoining or functionally linked to BAW2 and the Yare County Wildlife Sites
assess the cumulative impact of the New Road / Town House Road / Bawburgh Lakes promotions, not each field in isolation
collect the right evidence now: cluster mapping, updated flood and wastewater work, visitor-pressure and green-infrastructure standards, and habitat / nutrient-neutrality constraints
What other sites of interest are being put forward for GNLP 2045?
Wain Estates’ land is the dashed red outline on the map below: north of New Road, east of the A47, west of Chapel Break and south of the Hampdens (Call for Sites ref. 25801). It is not the only promotion in this part of the Yare valley.
The pink parcels are other sites submitted in the 2026 Call for Sites. None of them have been assessed or preferred. They are on the register for information only.
Look at the map and the pattern is obvious. Promoted land wraps around Bawburgh, sits on both sides of New Road, presses against Charter Wood and the lakes, and then continues south of the A47 towards Colney, the hospital and Little Melton. The adopted country park (BAW2) and the County Wildlife Sites sit in the middle of that cluster, not safely outside it.
Across Greater Norwich, 479 sites were submitted. Officers will assess them over the coming months. The public gets to comment on individual sites at Regulation 23 in June–July 2027. Until then, the risk is that each pink shape is judged on its own, and the cumulative effect on the Yare corridor is missed.
Official register (information only): https://gnlp.oc2.uk/document/90
Dashed red outline: Wain Estates / site 25801, north of New Road.
Pink: other Call for Sites promotions in the Bawburgh–Colney–Little Melton–Cringleford cluster.
How can we submit a response to the Scoping Consultation?
The deadline is 5pm on 28 September 2026. You do not need to answer every question. Five focused answers in your own words are worth more than a copied script.
1. Sign up on the GNLP portal
The official site is https://gnlp.oc2.uk/. You only need an account if you want to comment. You can read the documents without one.
Open https://gnlp.oc2.uk/.
In the black bar at the top right, click Register (or Login if you already have one).
Enter your email address and finish the account steps. Check your inbox and junk folder for the verification email.
Official how-to: https://gnlp.oc2.uk/instructions.
If the site will not let you in, email GNLP@norfolk.gov.uk or call 01603 306603.
You can also respond without an account:
Email GNLP@norfolk.gov.uk
Write to GNLP 2045 Team, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, NR1 2DH
If you email or write, put GNLP 2045 Regulation 20 Scoping Consultation in the subject line and include your name and address so the representation can be registered.
2. Open the right document
On the homepage, open GNLP 2045 Regulation 20 Scoping Consultation. Use the contents list to jump to the question you want. Click the Comment button next to that question and type your answer in the box.
Question list: https://gnlp.oc2.uk/document/94/35222. Note: the Question list page does not have comment buttons on them. You have to go into the Consultation Document pages to see the individual questions and the comment boxes.
3. Which questions to answer — and which you can leave blank
There are 22 questions. Most of them are not about this land. Leave them blank unless you have something specific to say.
Answer these if you can:
Question 6 — what areas are appropriate for additional growth, and what infrastructure, services and amenities would be needed there.
Question 16 — how the plan should support accessibility to housing, jobs and services; wastewater treatment capacity and nutrient neutrality; and clean power / net zero.
Question 17 — whether the plan should set demanding water-efficiency standards, higher nature-recovery standards, and identify sites or standards for green infrastructure and Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG).
Question 19 — whether the scope of the proposed evidence studies should change, or whether other evidence should be updated or commissioned.
Question 22 — anything else missing from the consultation, or any other comment on GNLP 2045.
Safe to leave blank unless you particularly want to answer them: Q1–Q5, Q7–Q15, Q18, Q20 and Q21. Those cover SWOT analysis, plan structure, housing mix, the economy, design and the councils’ engagement methods. They are real questions. They are not the place to fight this cluster.
There is no site-allocations question at this stage. Do not write a full objection to 25801 as if this were a planning application.
4. Example points — use your own words
We have put example points on a separate page:
Those examples are a prompt only. Please do not copy them word for word. Planning authorities can see identical comments, campaign-pack text and obvious AI-generated submissions. Duplicates and generic “slop” are easy to discount. What carries weight is a short note that sounds like you.
If two neighbours make the same points in different words, that is useful. If fifty people paste the same paragraph, it looks like one comment repeated.
5. After you submit
Keep a copy of what you sent. If you can, send the same points to Costessey Town Council and Bawburgh Parish Council. Their submissions carry more weight than a single resident acting alone.
The next chance to comment on individual sites is Regulation 23, expected June–July 2027.
Contact
Get in touch to share your thoughts.
© 2025. All rights reserved.