New Norfolk bypass plans spark Historic England concerns

Government advisors Historic England have raised concerns with Norfolk County Council about the authority's plans for the West Winch Access Road, near King's Lynn.

Officials say there there is a prehistoric site, a Roman settlement and a "substantial moated site" on the northern half of the proposed road, which would link the A10 and A47.

A visualisation of the West Winch Access Road (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Historic England says recent geophysical surveys have also "identified several new sites and anomalies of archaeological interest".

Experts want the county council, which says the road is needed to serve 4,000 homes due to be built in the West Winch area, to carry out trial trench excavations before a decision on whether to grant permission is made by the authority's planning committee.

A graphic showing the proposed route of the West Winch Access Road (Image: West Norfolk council)

They say that, if the council waited until after permission has been granted to carry out such digs, it would not be possible to change the design or route of the road should archaeological finds of "high significance" be discovered.

Dr Jana Schuster, inspector of historic buildings and areas at Historic England, also raised concerns at how the new road would impact the setting of churches in West Winch and North Runcton.

St Mary's Church in West Winch (Image: Matthew Usher)

Dr Schuster, in Historic England's submission to County Hall as part of the planning process, said: "The proposals would change how the churches of All Saints (Grade I) and Saint Mary (Grade II*) would be viewed and approached and their rural setting would be partly eroded.

All Saints Church in North Runcton (Image: Historic England)

"The road would also bisect the two medieval villages of West Winch and North Runcton and therefore would divide these two closely related settlements.

"The assessment of impact would need to reflect this relationship and how this would be impacted by the development. It is not clear at this stage if the applicant has taken this into consideration.

"Given the scale of the proposed development and the surrounding landscape character, this development would be visible across a large area and would affect the significance of heritage assets at some distance from the site itself."

Historic England said the council should not grant permission at this point until further information is provided.

Dr Schuster said: "Proposals repeatedly refer to landscape mitigation strategies which would reduce the impact of proposals on heritage assets.

"However, further clarity is needed about what the details of these mitigation strategies are in order to be able to fully assess whether the proposed mitigations would be sufficient to reduce the level of harm that would be caused.

"We recognise that there are potential strong public benefits to the proposals, but we are concerned that, at present, we cannot yet confirm that the mitigation proposed would be successful."

A spokesman for Norfolk County Council said: "We are currently in the planning stage of the project and we will continue to work with the planning authority to respond to the matters that have been raised by consultees.

"This is an ongoing process. Details of our completed geophysical surveys and our proposals for future trench excavations are included within the planning application."

The road would connect the two major A roads, via a new 1.5-mile road, which would start to the south of Gravelhill Lane in West Winch and would join the A47 before it reaches the Hardwick junction.

The proposed West Winch Access Road (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Changes will need to be made to the Hardwick interchange to take into account the housing traffic and the rerouted A10.

The council lodged plans for the road with its own planning committee in January.

There have long been calls for the access road to be built before the thousands of new homes are constructed, to stop roads being further clogged up by extra traffic.

Campaigners have called for the road to be built before the homes are constructed at West Winch (Image: Chris Bishop)

The Forestry Commission has also told Norfolk County Council it will need to protect seven 'irreplaceable' trees along the road's route.

The commission advised the authority that development leading to the loss of veteran trees should be refused, unless there were "wholly exceptional reasons".

The council's planning committee will make a decision on the road in due course.