Norwich Norfolk East Anglia Pigeon County Norfolk Council Managing Director Wendy Thomson Quality Development Brownfield Norwich City

Communities and councillors in East Anglia are looking for quality developments that will not “infringe” their quality of life, according to the Managing Director of Norfolk County Council.

Dr Wendy Thomson, speaking at our Norwich and East Anglia event, said residents frequently tell council officials that ‘they recognise quality’ and therefore they need to ensure that they have quality: “If there’s only one road in and one road out of a development; if amenities have not been installed at the same time, of if there’s competition for school places of health services, that’s when the community gets annoyed.”

She added: “It’s not NIMBYism, they are being real about the fact that their quality of life is being infringed without a lot of payback. I know planning can sometimes feel like a constraint, but if you want brownfield development in the city, and if you don’t have proper planning powers, you will not get that kind of development. You will get unplanned developments, which are not necessarily the quality you want.”

She also insisted that having Cambridge nearby was an ‘asset’ and meant there were opportunities for collaborations between the two university cities: “We want to grow the future workforce and make sure the knowledge economy is available for people to live and stay here.”

Dr Thomson also gave an overview of the development zones in the region and how they are looking to engage with developers and investors. The council is currently developing several economic growth corridors, including one between nearby Cambridge and Norwich, to attract technology firms involved with IT, engineering and pharmaceuticals. In addition, they’re also developments and engineering corridor along the A47.

There is also a major development opportunity on the number of former airfields in the county, which are now being turned into business parks, housing and economic hubs.

Ifield Group’s Executive Director Edward Olley and Pigeon Investment Management’s Asset Manager Hugh French spoke next on their development – Broadlandgate. The scheme will be Norwich’s new gateway business destination which has planning consent for over 64,000 sq m of business, retail and leisure use.

The new development is strategically placed with 250,000 people within a 15-minute catchment area, a further 600,000 people within a 30-minute drive and just an hour from neighbouring Suffolk.

The Executive Chair at Norwich Research Park, David Parfey, spoke at the event about the park’s thriving scientific community, which is home to more than 80 businesses and 3,000 scientists, researchers and clinicians.

He said: “I’ve been working in science support for a long time and I can tell you that there is nowhere else in the UK that has the level of focus or the level of concentration that Norwich has. We are going to make sure Norwich is the centre of the universe for science. We want to attract people to come here and work with us. We also want to take a responsible place within the local community and we are building friendships with a lot of people to help us take this exciting journey forward.”

Roger Bond, Director of Estates at East Anglia University, concluded the event with a presentation focused on the number of developments they’re working on currently.
Their estates masterplan includes the relocation of the sports facilities and teams, an expansion to the Norwich Business School and the refurbishment of the concrete Ladsun Teaching Wall, which runs across the campus: “By 2030, we will be in the Top 15 of UK universities, but we’re hoping with these activities, we will be in the Top 10.”