Apologies for the light-heated tone of this post, but it’s hard to write a serious report given the circumstances….

The long awaited Planning Appeal for Eastern Attachments’ B2 heavy industrial application rapidly descended into farce today as the Planning Inspector adjourned the hearing immediately after opening it. The Planning Inspector seemed logical, focussed and objective, to the extent that she soon realised the hearing couldn’t proceed.

The reason was simple – Breckland District Council had booked a room that was even described to the meeting by a member of their own team as ‘sub optimal’ (or as it really was, totally unsuitable). The Planning Inspector eventually adjourned the meeting on the grounds that it wasn’t a safe environment to proceed.

Despite being formally requested by the Planning Inspector, Breckland failed to arrange microphones or audio equipment to ensure everyone could hear what was being said. The offered answer was to wheel in a portable karaoke machine with a single wired microphone, which the Inspector dismissed instantly.

Despite previous meetings on this application crowding out the much larger council chamber in Dereham, the Watton room was so small that attendees were having to be seated on chairs outside the room and craning to hear through the open door.

Then a member of the public arrived in a wheelchair and the full shortcomings of the venue were seen in all their glory.

Despite the EA Barrister making repeated attempts to force a hearing on the day (the Inspector eventually verbally slapped him down on his third attempt when he tried to say the hearing could easily be held over Zoom or the public could simply be excluded), she stuck to her guns and the hearing was adjourned.

There are several key outcomes here; 

1. It’s acutely embarrassing for Breckland to have an Appeal Hearing adjourned by the Planning Inspector through their own ineptitude;

2. The venue hire fee – from public funds – was wasted (although some of resident attendees did eat the biscuits afterwards);

3. It’s entirely probable that EA will apply for their barrister and consultant’s costs, which will be difficult for Breckland to refuse – another waste of our council tax money;

4. The revised hearing date is now essentially at the mercy of the Planning Inspector, who expected to conclude today. As the Planning Inspectorate’s workloads are laid out around six months in advance – this one was five months – it may be that her next available slot may not be until the summer.

We still hope for a swift resolution as the blight on the village caused by this matter is draining for everyone, but the ineffectiveness and failings of Breckland’s Planning team have never been more clearly demonstrated. 

Someone mentioned a brewery…

The excavations along Stan’s Walk are being undertaken by a contractor called Compass on behalf of UK Power Networks.The work is to install two 11,000V circuits between Watton and Griston to reinforce the power supply to HMP Wayland for the new cell and kitchen blocks. Two teams are orking on it, one coming from the Griston end and the other from Watton.

​The trench will run along the length of Stan’s Walk on one side; as Griston Parish Council our interest is in only our end, butit’s possible that some of capacity no longer used by the airfield is still available from the ‘Old Griston Road’ sub station just past the gate.

​The work is scheduled on the permit to last until 14 February; the teams are set a target of 100m a week. The trench isbackfilled using largely the material that is dug out.

The area through the mature trees at the Griston end will be hand dug to protect the roots. Exposed roots are covered with wet sacking to protect them. The contractor will return on the spring to seed the entire trench with grass seed; there’s no sense in seeding while it’s cold and won’t germinate.

This ​work is just reinforcement of the network to make sure the prison continues to have sufficient power; it’s not for any phantom new housing estate or other frightening development. Wates and the MoJ expect to submit their planning application for the building work in the coming weeks.

​The Norfolk County Council street works permit is searchable online using the interactive map at https://one.network/uk/Norfolk (see extract above).

If you want to know what’s happening, we recommend you stop and speak to the guys doing the work. A friendly enquiry will be met with a explanation as they’re happy to talk about their work and keep the public informed.

​We understand cake is well received too!