Pop round for coffee (or tea), cake, conversation and a sprinkling of memories at Thorp House’s July 2025 Macmillan Coffee morning.
Pop along and grab yourself a cuppa and a slice.
Everyone welcome – just ring the bell.
The parish council has decided to move their monthly meetings to the GFSL Meeting Room in the boiler house area of HMP Wayland. The first meeting to use the venue will be on 14 October 2025.
The prison is making the room available to the council free of charge, and it benefits from central heating, WIFI, toilets and full audio-visual equipment that should enhance our meetings and allow slide presentations instead of printed handouts.
This as close to a ‘Local Authority building’ as we can get inside the parish.
Meetings will now start at 19:00 and end promptly by 20:55 to allow the staff to lock up at their shift end.
The map and directions below should enable parishioners and the general public to find the venue easily. These have also been posted on the parish council noticeboards.
Norwich County Council’s mobile library service will be making its monthly visit to Griston, parking in the Thorp House car park on Church Road at 12:30.
The service includes thousands of printed books – novels, reference, non-fiction, children’s, etc. – as well as music, games, jigsaws, DVD video and CD and Playaway audio books.
Anything they don’t carry can be ordered there and then – the mobile library has remote access to NCC’s full computerised inventory. Items ordered online from home can be delivered by asking for delivery to route CEN 415.
The mobile library offers the full range of services – up to 15 items on loan at a time – with the added advantage that mobile loans last for two months rather than the static library one month period.
Come along and meet Peter, our very helpful library driver, and see how you can make use of this valuable resource without needing to leave the village.
FUTURE 2025 DATES
Thursday 06 November
We reported back in June that the annual inspection of the playground equipment had found that after fifteen years of sustained use, the climbing frame was unsafe. The top timber had finger-sized gaps in them, and the poles into the ground were significantly rotted below the surface. At the time, we fenced it off to prevent use.
At the same time, we were planning to integrate the standalone tunnel pipe – donated by Forestry England – back into the earth mound, effectively returning it to its original condition before the old tunnel fell apart six years ago.
Killing two birds with one stone, we have now cut up the climbing frame and reused 26 pieces of the salvaged timber as the end retaining walls for the tunnel, saving around £400 on buying new sleepers.
As usual in the park, nothing went quite as expected, with part of a buried WWII road needing to be jackhammered to get the vertical timbers in.
With an additional ten sandbags and four tonnes of topsoil installed above the tunnel, the mound is again a continuous ramp between the swings and the slide. We will be seeding the new soil and hoping that the weather in September/October is good enough for new growth.
We will be trying to clear the climbing frame bark area in the next two weeks and the council is discussing our options to replace the climbing frame at our September meeting.
The new installation is already very popular – we counted seventeen children and two dogs in or on it immediately after we’d finished but before we finally closed the gate!
The new gates were delivered in late August and were installed over two days in early September. They are a huge improvement on the dilapidated old set, and make the playing field far more secure.
Having seen stories in the media about unwelcome visitors to open areas and parks in Dereham and Thetford over the summer that resulted in tens of thousands of pounds in clean up costs, we believe we have headed that problem off for Griston.
This means that all three pedestrian entrances to the park are accessed via ‘kissing gates’, which prevent motorbikes and horses. The final elements are to replace the old locks and update the signage.
Our thanks to Norfolk County Council’s Parish Partnership Scheme for approving a grant that will meet 50% of the total cost.
The end of the summer will be a busy time as we undertake repair and maintenance works in the QEII Playing Field.
We’ve started by undertaking some straightforward activities, with the top of the rectangular picnic table – the part most used for picnics – being sanded clean and new coat of protection being applied, a trip hazard removed from the Stan’s Walk gate and cleaning of the bird droppings from the junior swings.
The circular picnic tables will need to be replaced in the next couple of years and we will explore options for these in the next round of budget setting.
The next activities will be the relevelling of the bin base, installation of the new Carbrooke Road entrance gates and the reintegration of the tunnel section into the rebuilt mound.
We reported back in July that Eastern Attachments had issued a pre-application for a Judicial Review of the Planning Inspector’s decision to dismiss their appeal against the B2 heavy industrial use of the Coughtrey site.
They have now decided to challenge the decision in the High Court on the basis the Inspector didn’t treat them fairly or take full account of some factors that perhaps should have been applied. Notice of a Judicial Review was served on Breckland and the Planning Inspectorate on 4 August, and we wait to see if the Ministry decides to fight the challenge in the High Court. Unless the High Court decides to uphold the appeal dismissal, we can expect a re-run of the original appeal, either by a second hearing or by Written Representations. If it ends up being Witten Representations, then the Parish Council will request to be an Interested Party under Rule 6.
The parish council met with Breckland to discuss the case, and they confirmed that they won’t be taking any enforcement action with regard to either of the Abatement Notices (for noise and odour) until the case – and any second planning appeal – is settled. This is immensely disappointing as the nuisance continues through the summer with no relief and no authorisation for the smelly and noisy activities.
We will keep everyone updated alongside the Griston Community Group, but if the case is contested in the High Court, it probably won’t be heard before early 2026.
We haven’t included a link to the claim pack lodged with the High Court as it runs to nearly 1,000 pages, but copies are available by contacting the Clerk on gristonclerk@gmail.com.
We reported back on 23 June that the Planning Inspector had dismissed the appeal for change of us to B2 Heavy Industry. Under normal circumstances, that would be the end of the matter.
We noted that the only available option now for Eastern Attachments was a potential – but likely expensive – application to High Court to overturn the Planning Inspector’s decision.
Quite predictably, EA has now served notice on Breckland that they do indeed intend to seek a judicial review of the Planning Inspector’s decision. Their letter laying out their grounds for the application is attached.
Whether this is a sign of desperation or just a final throw of the dice to recover a financial position only time will tell, but it places the village back under the blight that we hoped was lifted by the appeal dismissal.
Basically they accuse the Planning Inspector of bias, listening to the Parish Council and community representatives and of taking late evidence that disproved some of their assertions.
Both Griston and Caston Parish Councils, with the Griston Community Group, have been invited to meet with the Leader of Breckland Council, their solicitor and their Planning Team on 4 August.
Naturally we will update everyone once we have had these discussions.
This is the very last option available and is now a High Court claim against the Planning Inspectorate by Eastern Attachments. If we are allowed and able to support a final push to get the B2 application squashed forever, we will naturally seize the opportunity.
The wooden bench at the junction of Thompson Road and Church Road has needed replacement for some time, and has now been replaced. It’s a common stopping off point for walkers and dog walkers to sit and take in the farmland views. Its also handy for seeing the buses coming from Watton and Thetford.
We managed to choose the first rainy day for three months for the installation!
Our sincere thanks go to Wates and HMP Wayland’s Carpentry Workshop for this generous addition to the village. This is a key step in the building of a renewed and robust relationship between the prison and Griston.
Wates is the contractor appointed to build the new prison block and they supplied the special order Canadian hardwood material. This donation to Griston is part of their community commitments as part of the project. There are other parts of that plan that we are also working with them on.
Parish Council Chair Shane Barber accepting delivery of the bench from Wates’ installation team leader Tony Baines
HMP Wayland’s Carpentry Workshop machined and manufactured the parts, then assembled and oiled them. This work provides valuable extension to skills acquired by prisoners nearing release who want to seek carpentry or joinery employment after release.
The last bench lasted for twenty years, and we hope this one becomes equally appreciated by the village. We look forward to meeting many of you there for a chat.
Our plan is to allow parishioners to purchase dedication plaques to remember loved ones and we will install them along the top rail. We will publish details of this scheme as it is finalised and costs become known.
Eastern Attachments’ Planning Appeal has been DISMISSED by the Planning Inspector. As she puts it “…I consider that the benefits of the scheme do not outweigh the harm in allowing this development…”
This hopefully now brings some closure to this sorry saga which has blighted the village for over three years. Huge thanks are due to John and Katrina Heath, who set up the Griston Community Group and led the challenges from day one. With 100+ registered objectors and significant donations, the village pulled together and stood firm in what often seemed to be a losing battle with the odds against us.
Having looked through the decision report (you can download and view it here), it’s clear the Planning Inspector was fair and gave varying weights to different arguments and evidence that was submitted (or not, in some instances) by all sides.
Central to the decision seems to be two factors:
1. A lack of evidence to support the claim that no other site in the area could provide enough power, when the Inspector notes Snetterton could have 36MVA available following upgrades to the UKPN Primary substation at Attleborough, and
2. Breckland’s view that while their Policy EC04 (which deals with establishing industrial sites outside of General Employment Areas) was being breached, wider concerns in the Local Plan meant the development could proceed.
Both of these were items strongly contested by both the Parish Council and the Griston Community Group in their submissions to the Appeal.
The Inspector did give the Appellant credit for wanting to employ state-of-the-art machinery, ‘latest technologies’ and innovative processes in support of a global business client base, but in the final analysis, in the Inspector’s opinion the factors against permission weren’t sufficiently balanced by the positives.
The question on everyone’s lips… ‘So what happens now?’
In the short term, only Eastern Attachments can know this. The very final legal challenge after a dismissed appeal is an application to overturn the Appeal Decision by the High Court, but this would be enormously expensive for all involved. Certainly some Parish Councillors believed fear of this eventuality could possibly have been a factor in Breckland’s interpretation of their own Local Plan policies. As a commercially astute district council, an unbudgeted bill for up to £500,000 of High Court costs would have created an enormous headache.
But unless there’s a clear mistake in both Breckland’s refusal and the Inspector’s dismissal, it’s difficult to see how such an case could succeed. In any case, they have only six weeks to lodge any case at the High Court, after which it becomes time-barred.
Of course, as the owner of the site, Eastern Attachments can use it for whatever permitted use they choose; they could try to configure the existing buildings for use within their current planning permission uses and this is something they did say they might do during the appeal. For example, they could opt to devote the site to fire extinguisher manufacture and not JCB digger buckets, as this might be construed as falling into the existing permission category. Only they know how this might work, and what inefficiencies they would incur using only half the planned site and with no B2 industrial use. It would seem – and again, they mentioned this at the Planning Appeal – they would have to have a second site and a transport arrangement between them. Refusal of planning permission means that even materials storage for the B2 activity isn’t allowed, so the current banging and clanging will come to an end.
They could even reapply for the previous new layout and buildings but without the change of use. That might be easily spotted for what it could be.
Their current ‘illegal’ use of the buildings – which was proudly demonstrated to ourselves, the Inspector and Breckland as part of the Appeal – will have to now cease, as they are all part of the failed application. We will press Breckland to immediately enforce cessation, ending the noise and odour nuisances which are currently under Environmental Health Abatement Notices that expire in several months, as those activities are now a breach of planning permission. The machinery already installed should be removed, along with the shiny new chimneys and the liquid gas plant, but enforcement is down to Breckland, who don’t have a great record unless pushed hard.
Clearly a lot of money, time and effort was put into acquiring and planning the site by the company, with multiple specialist engineers retained and a.Barrister employed throughout the Appeal process. How the site might now stack up financially and operationally in a reduced capacity is something the Appellant will no doubt be assessing, especially after the devastating fire – and subsequent demolition – at their Attleborough works.
Whatever happens, the Parish Council will stand firm in making sure we get the best outcome for the village as a whole. We had already agreed to meet with Breckland whatever the Appeal outcome to establish the best way forward for everyone and will continue to work with them.
Updates to follow…
