Update on Fox Hill Plantation

 In December 2022 North Norfolk District Council refused permission for a ‘change of use of land to storage of caravans and boats, siting of 39 storage containers, siting of portable building for office use and erection of boundary fence’ at Fox Hill Plantation on the Morston road.

The applicant appealed the decision last October, a matter we covered then.

The Planning Inspectorate has just dismissed the appeal. An earlier application, in 2020, was also turned down by NNDC and it seems unlikely now that the scheme will ever go ahead.

(Meanwhile we have been monitoring the NNDC website for any news about Lanpro’s proposal for land west of North Street. Nothing has yet come up, and it has been about a year since residents were sent the circular describing the plans.) 

The razing of Fox Hill Plantation

You may already know that another planning application was submitted for Fox Hill Plantation on the Morston Road.

The history of planning applications for this site may be viewed here. The latest application, having been rejected by NNDC, has gone to appeal.

The proposal would see the copse turned into a site for 39 storage containers, with additional storage for caravans and boats, as well as a facility for portable buildings for office use, together with the erection of a boundary fence. It was rejected some time ago. The site is in the North Norfolk Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and would be served by an unclassified road close to a primary school. The change of use would increase the level of traffic – particularly of goods vehicles, some of them heavy – between Morston and the church crossroads, adding to the problems in North Street.

Such a development is unlikely to provide much in the way of job creation; the coast is at capacity for boats already. The potential harms outweigh whatever benefits a development like this would bring to the area.

North Norfolk has some of the darkest night skies in the country. A storage compound of the sort proposed would undoubtedly have security lights. These would affect the whole area between Langham and Morston. And because the site is situated on a hillside, there is also the possibility of polluted runoff affecting adjoining fields.

If you wish to make any comments online please quote the appeal reference

APP/Y2620/W/23/3319567

and go to the Planning Inspectorate’s website. Letters should be addressed to

Safia Kaiser
The Planning Inspectorate
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Bristol
BS1 6PN

The deadline for comments is 6 November 2023, so please act as soon as you can.

The more opposition we can raise, the better the chances of scotching this scheme once and for all, so please also consider copying your comments to NNDC. Emails should be sent to planning@north-norfolk.gov.uk and letters to

The Chief Planning Officer
North Norfolk District Council
Council Offices
Holt Road
Cromer
Norfolk
NR27 9EN