East Harling homes scheme put on hold

A housing scheme for East Harling has been deferred to give villagers a chance to view last minute changes to the project.

The scheme for 10 homes, three of those affordable, on a one acre site in Lopham Road, put forward by David and Andrew Taylor, had been set to be thrown out at a council meeting this week.

But at the last minute planners made a u-turn on the scheme and suggested Monday's development board meeting of Breckland Council could in fact give the scheme the go-ahead.

Instead, the board decided to defer their decision to give people more time to comment on it.

Concern was raised the if the scheme was granted it would pre-empt a new planning blueprint policy being drawn up by the council - the so-called local development framework (LDF).

Councillors, including Lady Fisher and Mark Kiddle-Morris, felt the scheme, proposed outside East Harling's settlement boundary, was amongst sites being discussed in the LDF so should not go ahead before the document is finished as otherwise it would set a 'tacit permission' for other nearby pockets of land in the LDF.

Nick Moys, Breckland's principal planning officer, had argued that they could allow the scheme because the district had a massive housing land shortfall, which enabled them to make exceptions to some housing schemes normally not allowed.

The development would be close to a nearby number of industrial units, which had raised concerns about safety and loss of privacy and light to other homes.

If given the go-ahead the developers would give £2,500 towards local road safety improvements, according to the application.

The board agreed to defer the scheme to give the parish council a chance to have their say after the u-turn on the recommendation for approval.