Object

Representation ID: 99531

Received: 16/12/2022

Respondent: Dr L David Ormerod

Legally compliant? No

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

The Special Case of Shouldham Warren
AOS E contained Shouldham Warren, an elevated area of 372 hectares (919 acres) which has provided a unique, safe, wooded, hilly, open access. Forestry Commission environment for a great variety of recreational pursuits for West Norfolk residents for 2-3 generations. It is situated at the Fen Edge, within the River Nar Core River Valley (MP5) (as shown by the NMWLP Revised Polices Maps, December 2017, p. 99) adjacent to the River Nar SSSI and to several monasterial heritage assets. The northern Warren drains into the River Nar. AOS E was situated in the intervillage between four communities, Shouldham, Marham, Wormegay and Shouldham Thorpe. The Warren is also used extensively by a great many citizens in West Norfolk for recreation. Furthermore, Shouldham Warren had been specifically exempted from silica sand safeguarding (MP11) and (together with east Bilney Wood) is shown as a negative lacuna on the Norfolk silica sand safeguarding map; this is not mentioned in the Local Plan archive.

Nature of the Public Usage of Shouldham Warren
The breadth of recreational usage of Shouldham Warren is not included in Plan documents. This includes access by mobility vehicles and prams, picnicking, kite flying, childrens' play, walking, Cycling, horse riding and harness driving, dog walking, school trips, birdwatching, running and athletic training, orienteering, photography, by naturalists, and includes regular sports events such as Ryston Harriers, Norfolk Orienteers, Kings Lynn Mountain Bike Club, City of Norwich Athletics Club, Norfolk Athletics Cross Country, and Ramblers walks. The Warren is highly varied, tranquil, safe, large, and with plenty of parking. The environmental, archaeological, and heritage status is considered in Plan documents. The mixed forestry that comprise most of the site has received new emphasis (2021) with the National and County forestry campaigns to plant millions of trees to aid the amelioration of global warming. In Policy MP2 which provided relative protection for "ancient" woodland. the word ancient has recently been deleted by the N.C.C. cabinet to protect woodland in general.

NPPF paragraph 98 reads, "Access to a network of high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity is important for the health and wellbeing of communities, and can deliver wider benefits for nature and support efforts to address climate change. Planning policies should he based upon robust and up to date assessments of the need for open space, sport and recreation facilities.. and opportunities for new provision.

Section 99 continues, "Existing open space. sports and recreational buildings and land. including playing fields should not he built upon unless (a) an assessment has been undertaken which has clearly shown the open space, buildings or land to be surplus to requirements, or (b) the loss resulting from the proposed development would he replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quality and quantity in a suitable location.”

As the recreational jewel of West Norfolk within a badly scarred regional environment with a local road system unsuitable for recreational pursuits, and where no realistic alternatives exist, it is surprising that the proposition of AOS E as a silica sand extraction candidate survived for so long. I believe that the Shouldham Warren should have been declared off-limits to all development. including mineral developments, as it provides an absolutely unique and traditional environment for West Norfolk country recreation. Neither should the Warren ever have been under consideration for inclusion on the silica sand safeguarding map as its public utility predated the mineral safeguarding process by 50-60 years; a safeguarded site cannot subsequently be safeguarded for a different purpose. This was not ''justified", "evidence-led", nor "consistent" with national planning policy.

The true commitment of the Council to consider the public interests of the local residents and regional users in a representative area of search can be gained by examining the N.C.C. cumulative silica sand extraction website with regard to AOS E. About 2 years ago (a timepoint when AOS E was apparently already cancelled, but unrevealed) I read the 179 documents then on the N.C.C. silica sand website that directly informed the process. In no document was it mentioned that Shouldham Warren had been a major public recreational venue for at least 2 generations. A public interest was never mentioned other than as a bland response to Initial Options "consultations," such as the Ramblers statements just being "noted." Indeed, the first mention of recreational use in any official capacity was in the NMWLP Publication document itself in May 2022. I wrote a detailed letter to Mr. Tom McCabe over this issue in May 2020, including the outlining of substantial data, but I received no substantive reply. It certainly was never considered in the Monitoring Framework (section 8 of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy) and is just not included in the NMWLP Statement of Consultation document, May 2022. The Surveying Authority has, for reasons that are not apparent) clearly sought to avoid the extensive public recreational usage of Shouldham Warren during deliberations over this Local Plan. This may not be legally uncompliant, but certainly fails all the criteria adduced under soundness.

Public Rights of Way
Further insight into the NMWLP assessment of Shouldham Warren was the refusal to accept detailed historical evidence for 10 old public ways on or adjacent to the Warren, despite the County statutory obligation to continuously keep the Definitive Map under review. NMW advised that they would consider these public ways only when they were officially sanctioned although the evidence was supplied to them. With up to a 20-year backlog accumulated at N.C.C. Legal Orders and Registers over this unfunded mandate, the Warren may have been extensively mined by then. This sense of unreality was brought to the attention of N.CC, without an effective reply. It is suggested that the SCI is modified to include the responsibility of the County to fully update PROW in areas proposed for minerals extraction as part of the adjudication.

Ignoring the valid and extensive public land-use interests in Shouldham Warren that had continued for more than 2 generations before the establishment of silica sand safeguarding, and when N.C.C. had exempted the Warren from this regulatory rule-making, is "unjustified", "not evidence-led," is "based on (the absence) of joint working", and is "inconsistent with national planning policy." The avoidance of recognition of the public land-use status of Shouldham Warren in all relevant Local Plan documents over at least a 12-year process, when the facts were fully known, and repeatedly affirmed, is an afront to "legal compIiance."

Soundness test: not effective, not positively prepared, not compliant with national policy