Policy 7.1 – The Norwich Urban Area including the fringe parishes

Norwich and the fringe parishes¹⁰⁷ will be the area’s major focus for jobs, homes and service development to enhance its regional centre role and to promote major regeneration, the growth of strategic and smaller scale extensions and redevelopment to support neighbourhood renewal. The area will provide 30,500 additional homes and sites for a significant increase in jobs, including around 257 hectares of undeveloped land allocated for employment use.

To achieve this, development sites will be focussed in the city centre, in strategic regeneration areas in East Norwich and the Northern City Centre and at strategic urban extensions¹⁰⁸ in the north-east and west as well as other locations across the urban area as follows:

Housing

Part of Norwich Urban area	Existing deliverable commitment (including uplift + delivery 2018/19)	New allocations	Total deliverable housing commitment 2018 - 2038
City centre
Northern City Centre Strategic Regeneration Area	1,533	25	1,558
Other city centre sites	2,724	200	2,924
City centre total	4,257	225	4,482
East Norwich
East Norwich Strategic Regeneration Area	770	3,230	4,000
Elsewhere in the urban area (* denotes strategic urban extensions)
Colney	4	200	204
Costessey	529	0109	529
Cringleford*	1,771	0	1,771
Drayton	404	0	404
Easton*	1,046	0	1,046
Hellesdon*	1,351	0	1,351
Other sites in Norwich	2,160	180	2,340
Three Score, Bowthorpe*	908	0	908
Taverham*	121	1,417	1,538
The Growth Triangle*	12,087	1,420	13,507
Thorpe St. Andrew	386	0	386
Trowse	181	0	181
Other sites in urban area (Old Catton, Keswick, Sprowston)	44	0	44
Elsewhere in urban area total	20,992	3,217	24,209
Norwich Urban Area Total	26,019	6,672	32,691

Employment

Part of Norwich Urban Area	Existing undeveloped employment allocations (hectares, April 2018)	New allocations (hectares)	Total undeveloped employment allocations (hectares)
See policies 1 and 6 for the strategic sites in the Norwich Urban Area	187.9	46.9	245.8
Hellesdon	1.4	0	1.4
Taverham	5.6	0	5.6
Harford Bridge	4	0	4
Norwich urban area total	198.9	46.9	256.8

Other small-scale housing and employment development will be acceptable in principle elsewhere in the Norwich urban area subject to meeting other policies in the development plan.

The City Centre

Norwich city centre’s strategic role as key driver for the Greater Norwich economy will be strengthened. Development in the city centre will provide a high density mix of employment, housing, leisure and other uses. Intensification of uses within the city centre to strengthen its role as a main regional employment, retail, cultural and visitor centre, providing a vibrant and diverse experience for all, will be supported.

 Comprehensive redevelopment of the large district centre at Anglia Square and surrounding vacant land will provide a viable, high density, housing-led mixed-use development including retailing, employment, community and leisure facilities. The redevelopment of Anglia Square will be the catalyst for change in the wider Northern City Centre strategic regeneration area identified on the Key Diagram and defined in map 9.

1.  Economy

To ensure a strong employment base, development should provide a range of floorspace, land and premises as part of mixed-use developments. Development should promote more intensive use of land to meet identified needs for start-up and grow-on space for small and medium sized enterprises including the digital creative industries, technology, financial and cultural and leisure services clusters. To support this, loss of existing office floorspace will be resisted.

Development of buildings for further and higher education, training and lifelong learning will be supported in the city centre. The development of purpose-built student accommodation will be accepted where it accords with the criteria in policy 5.              

2. Retail and main town centre uses

The centre’s retail function will be supported as part of a complementary range of uses. Provision for any additional comparison retail floorspace will primarily be met through the intensification of retail use on existing sites.

Proposals for new development and change of use in primary and secondary retail areas and large district centres (as defined in policy 6) will be accepted where they:

• contribute to meeting identified needs for new retail floorspace and other main town centre uses, including speciality and independent shopping and small-scale retailing; or
• promote diversification of services and facilities to ensure that vitality and vibrancy can be maintained throughout the day and evening; or
• provide mixed-use development including housing, high quality employment, flexible working, education, leisure, culture and entertainment, where this supports and complements the function of the centre; or
• secure the beneficial redevelopment and adaptation of disused and underused land and premises including redundant retail floorspace.

3. Leisure, culture and entertainment and the visitor economy

The city centre’s leisure cultural and entertainment offer will be supported and expanded. Development of new leisure and cultural facilities, hotels and other visitor accommodation to strengthen the city centre’s role as a visitor and cultural destination will be accepted in accessible locations well related to centres of activity and transport hubs. Leisure uses, including uses supporting the early evening economy, will be accepted within the defined city centre leisure area where noise and disturbance issues can be mitigated and where they do not have detrimental effect on the retail offering, especially in the primary retail area.  A sequential approach will be used to determine applications for leisure uses outside the defined leisure area.  Late-night uses will only be accepted in the designated Late-Night Activity Zone.

4. Housing

To maximise the potential of the city centre to deliver new homes, housing will be required on the specific allocated sites detailed in the Sites document. 

5. The Built, Natural and Historic Environment

To protect and enhance the distinctive natural and built environment and heritage assets of the city centre:

• A programme of improvements to public spaces, as illustrated in a public realm infrastructure plan, will be implemented through a combination of public investment on the highway / publicly owned land and private investment in association with development proposals;
• New development proposals will respect the character of the city centre conservation area and address the principles set out in the City Centre Conservation Area Appraisal (or any successor), providing innovative and sustainable design; in particular in relation to scale, mass, height, layout and materials
• Riverside development will assist in delivering the policies/ priorities of the River Wensum Strategy (or any successor), including provision of a riverside walk. Riverside development should support and enable achievement of the strategy’s longer-term plans.

6. Access and Transportation

Development will be required to contribute to measures promoted by Transport for Norwich to improve accessibility, connectivity, legibility and permeability within the city centre. 

East Norwich

Development of sites allocated in the East Norwich strategic regeneration area identified on the Key Diagram and defined on map 9 including Carrow Works, the Deal Ground and the Utilities Site will create a highly sustainable mixed-use gateway quarter accommodating substantial housing growth and optimising economic benefits  Development across the sites  will provide in the region of 4,000 additional homes in the plan period and significant new employment opportunities for around 6,000 jobs. East Norwich also has the potential to act as a long-term catalyst for regeneration of the wider area, potentially including the following sites if they become available:

• Redevelopment of land adjoining the railway between the Deal Ground and Carrow Works as part of the wider East Norwich strategic growth area masterplan supplementary planning document;
• Land east of Norwich City F.C.;
• Land owned by Network Rail on Lower Clarence Road and Koblenz Avenue
• Intensification of uses at Riverside and
• Regeneration in the Rouen Road area.

Site proposals within the East Norwich strategic regeneration area will meet the requirements of an area-wide masterplan to ensure co-ordinated development. This will include:

• an exemplar design approach, building at high densities and  maximising the riverside regeneration potential to create a distinct, highly sustainable mixed-use community and new gateway quarter for the city, taking account of its setting adjacent to the Broads; .
• creating an inclusive, resilient and safe community in which people of all ages have good access to high quality homes that meet housing needs the provision of area-wide economic and social infrastructure and services, including (but not limited to) the creation of new  employment opportunities, a new local centre, and a new primary school should need be established;
• establishing an integrated access and transportation strategy which emphasises sustainable accessibility and traffic restraint, and allows for connectivity and permeability within and between the sites in the strategic regeneration area and beyond, including north-south links between Trowse and Bracondale and the north bank of the Wensum and Thorpe Road / Yarmouth Road, and east-west between the city centre, the railway station  and Whitlingham Country Park and the Broads including an extended riverside walk on the north and south banks of the Wensum. Proposals should be designed for ease of access to, and by, public transport, with appropriate bridge provision to ensure the sites are fully permeable by sustainable transport modes;
• planning development effectively to manage and mitigate the impact of vehicular traffic from the site/s on the local highway network including the Martineau Lane roundabout, Bracondale and King Street;
• protecting and enhancing green infrastructure assets, corridors and open spaces within the area, including enhancing linkages from the city centre to the Broads, Carrow Abbey County Wildife Site the wider rural area and elsewhere in Norwich, to include pedestrian/cycle links between Whitlingham Country Park and the city centre;
• providing for sustainable energy generation, including a local energy network serving the area as a whole;
• protecting and enhancing the sites’ and wider city’s rich heritage assets and their settings;
• achieving high quality, locally distinctive, energy efficient and flood resilient design which addresses identified risks from river and surface water flooding and mitigates against potential sources of noise and air pollution and establishes strong built frontages along the River Wensum and the defining network of streets and spaces with the sites;
• addressing and remediating site contamination; and
• planning to allow scope for greater use of the Rivers Wensum and Yare for water-based recreation, leisure and tourism including the potential inclusion of marinas and riverside moorings and access for waterborne freight subject to not impeding navigation of either river.

Elsewhere in the urban area including the fringe parishes

The remainder of the urban area including the fringe parishes will provide for a significant proportion of the total growth in Greater Norwich. Development will provide a range of sites for different types of housing, employment and community uses that are accessible and integrate well with the existing communities. It will provide necessary infrastructure, with a focus on public transport, walking and cycling, as well as social and green infrastructure.

Growth will include:

• Development of strategic and smaller scale urban extensions at existing locations committed for housing and employment uses as set out in the tables above (including that within the adopted Old Catton, Sprowston, Rackheath and Thorpe St Andrew Growth Triangle Area Action Plan), with uplift on existing allocated sites in Cringleford, Easton and Three Score (Bowthorpe);
• Significant new development proposals (including the expansion of the Norwich Research Park, and a large new allocation for homes in the Growth Triangle in Sprowston);
• Development at the University of East Anglia to cater for up to 5,000 additional students by 2038 through intensification of uses within the campus and its limited expansion;
• Development sites in the Sites document which will support neighbourhood-based renewal on brownfield sites, with densities highest in the most accessible locations and
• Enhancements to the green infrastructure network which will include links to and within the Wensum, Yare, Tud and Tas Valleys, Marriott’s Way and from Mousehold through the north-east growth triangle as set out in maps 8A and B, along with local networks.

In addition, a large contingency site is identified in Costessey to be brought forward if delivery of housing in the GNLP area does not meet local plan targets.