79 home development set for Shelfanger Road in Diss

Around 20.7 acres - roughly 14 football pitches - on the edge of Diss will be developed under proposals going before South Norfolk Council’s (SNC) planning committee. 

The plans, on land between Shelfanger Road and Heywood Road/Burston Road, will see 179 homes, plus a new road, built.  

The scheme also includes an area of public open space and 1.58 acres of land for the expansion of Diss Cemetery next to the site. 

Some 179 homes could be built on the edge of Diss (Image: ARCHANT EASTERN DAILY PRESS (01603) 772434)

Of the homes, 59 will be classed as affordable – 33pc. 

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting SNC officials have recommended the plans for approval. 

With a population of around 8,600 in mid-2019, when the plans are completed the development would increase the population of the town by around 5.5pc - to 9,076 - if all homes were filled. 

The plans have caused considerable concern among locals, with 40 neighbours writing in to the council to object.  

Many of the fears related to road safety, impact on wildlife and whether services including doctors will be able to cope with the increased population. 

But SNC officials have said Norfolk County Council’s highways team raised no objections to the plans, subject to pedestrian and Heywood Road access improvements. 

Officers have also asked the developer to provide £80,730 to help mitigate issues for doctors' surgeries and insist the development will lead to a biodiversity net gain. 

The plans only cover the broad strokes of the development, with the final details of how the site will be set out to come forward in a future planning application. 

Recommending the scheme for approval, officials said: “Officers consider that the scheme complies with relevant policies when taken as a whole.”