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My Norwich

Site specific allocations in the remainder of the city

R2: Norfolk Learning Difficulties Centre, Ipswich Road

Description

This site of 0.8 hectares is presently occupied by educational and employment uses, housed in mainly single storey prefabricated buildings. The site also includes car parking and greenhouses.
The A140 Ipswich Road, which forms a main arterial route to the city, is to the east of the site. Housing is set back from the road opposite the site.

The steeply sloped publicly accessible former chalk works of Danby Wood County Wildlife Site and Local Nature Reserve are to the west of the site, with an additional small open space to the south, which includes a Roadside Nature Reserve. These and the allocation site form part of the Yare Valley.

A footpath accessing Danby Wood and Park runs along the northern border of the site. The publicly accessible Danby Park is to the north-west. A former petrol filling station site is to the north on which site buildings have been cleared, with the site currently operating as a car wash facility.

Explanatory text

The priority for re-use of the site should be for a Norfolk County council function, for housing with care and/or a community facility. Alternatively, the site could be developed for housing for a minimum of 31 dwellings.

Access onto Ipswich Road needs careful and appropriate design and an additional pedestrian crossing point will be required as part of redevelopment to enhance pedestrian access across Ipswich Road to the site. To ensure site safety the redevelopment shall include a single point of access and be suitably designed and laid out to ensure servicing and turning of vehicles within the site to avoid conflict with the main A140.

Design should reflect the site’s location as a ‘gateway’ on a major road into Norwich. The presence of trees in and around the site must be taken into account in the design of the development. Development should also be landscaped to reflect its setting adjacent to green spaces in the Yare Valley, identified as a key green infrastructure corridor in the JCS. The design of the development should also enhance the setting of the footpath to the north of the site which provides access to the valley. The southern edge of the site should be designed as a transition space between green space and any new built form to reduce visual impact on the river valley. Opportunities for additional public access and suitable links through the site should be investigated as well as the potential to link with land to the north to enable that site’s potential re-use.

The development should be designed to minimise noise for future residents from the A140 and commercial uses, which will include adequate screening of the site and setting development back from the road.

Since the site is adjacent to former chalk workings and may have been subject to contamination, ground conditions and contamination surveys will be required to inform the design of development.

Deliverability

The site is a new allocation owned by Norfolk County Council and is suitable and available for development within the plan period. The former garage site to the north is owned by Norwich City Council.
 
POLICY R2: Norfolk Learning Difficulties Centre, Ipswich Road

The site of 0.8 hectares is allocated for development of:

  • a housing with care scheme; and/or
  • community facilities; or
  • housing development (in the region of 30 dwellings).

The development will be designed to reflect its gateway location, to protect and enhance the setting of neighbouring green spaces, designated woodlands, footpaths and the Yare Valley. A noise assessment is required, and design must mitigate the impact of noise for future residents.


Public access should be provided through the site to provide links to the Yare Valley and the setting of the footpath to the north of the site should be enhanced.


Access to the site must minimise impact on the A140 and include a pedestrian refuge in the road.

Site specific Allocation Land, Norfolk Learning Difficulties Centre, Ipswich Road

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