Land at North Street / Binham Road, Langham

Glavenhill are a Norfolk-based company that works to identify and unlock development opportunities throughout Norfolk, and to use some of the land value achieved through housebuilding to improve local communities. 

Glavenhill are committed to working with local people to fully understand the opportunity at Langham, and to gauge the support that is likely to be forthcoming for our emerging proposals.

Is the Development Needed?

The Fleur Developments’ new homes to the north was, and remains, very popular. Langham, like much of the area, is very popular indeed. The District has housing targets it needs to meet, both generally and with regard to affordable homes, and this scheme will not only contribute to that but also deliver many additional local benefits.

Family homes are required to bring more children into the area to maintain the vibrancy of the village for times to come, in particular the school (which if it were not for so many children being brought into the village by car, due to the school’s current success, would have worrying attendance – just 20 out of the 94 total last year came from the village; with only 31 from the whole catchment). This is due to the village, like so much of the District, having an ageing population as it is a popular retirement destination and for second and holiday homes. There is also the potential to improve the Village Hall (through either the expansion of the currently restrained site, or by delivering a new site for new building).

In addition, Glavenhill is promoting a no parking zone along the western side of North Street and a 1.8m wide kerbed footway along its western side. These measures would remove the current conflicting issues locally of combined parking/footway ‘painted’ on the road’s western side that also prejudices adjoining homes’ access’s visibility. Parking could instead be purposefully designed and provided on the land. Foot links could also be vastly improved, with both a new footpath directly to link North Street with the St Mary’s estate to the west and also through the site to Binham Road at the south. Traffic could also be calmed with the promotion of wider 20mph zones, Binham Road as well as North Street.

Why Here?

Langham is a popular village with a strong community. It benefits from The Bluebell village pub & restaurant, a popular and highly-rated Primary School, employment & leisure facilities at The Harper and Langham Hall as well as bus service. The village is also in close proximity to the higher order key service centres of Blakeney, Holt and Wells that provide a range of day-to-day shops and services, and other employment sources. Altogether, with the proposal of a new retail premises for the village, Langham has a good sustainable basis to accommodate some growth. Whilst we believe our Norfolk villages should not be ‘cast in aspic’, we are conscious that growth must be measured and we believe that the scale proposed here is not overly ambitious especially considering the benefits it could bring.

Transport and Highway Impact

There will be extra traffic, however villages like Langham do not tend to have heavy peak time flows instead flows that are moderated throughout the day – especially with the primary school being in close walking proximity. Furthermore, with a comprehensive package of highways related works proposed, the local position should be notably improved.

Local Services 

Any impacts resulting from the emerging proposals on local services will be mitigated through planning conditions and the necessary s.106 planning obligation that is devised and controlled by the District Council. Utilities providers have been approached and we believe that there is sufficient local capacity across all the networks to accommodate the scale of growth proposed.

Affordable Housing

Affordable Housing (or a lack of) is a big concern for the village, wider area and the District as a whole. The emerging proposals will provide for affordable housing to be delivered on-site that will be integrated into the scheme and designed to the same standard as all the market housing. Affordable housing will be delivered for local people at a range of sizes and tenures to meet identified needs. The affordable housing being delivered will include First Homes for younger people and families, intermediate housing and traditional housing for affordable rent. All the affordable dwellings being delivered will be ‘homes’ and will be restricted by legal agreement so that they cannot be sold, privately let and/or used as either holiday homes or second homes. We proposed that a ‘locals first’ cascade will also be advocated.

Moreover, we propose to pioneer with a restriction with the District Council on the majority of homes that they have to be used as principal homes (by way of legal s.106 agreement restriction on the title deeds). This should negate the ability to be used for second homes or ‘Air B&B’ et cetera. It is not possible to control against dwellings being bought to retire in, however often people moving in to retire are found to play a valuable part in village community and facilities life.

Heritage Impact

The location is undoubtedly sensitive; being on the southern edge of the AONB, within the Conservation Area and close to nearby listed buildings. However, with a well-designed low density layout with plenty of green space and strict design code to ensure top quality styles and materials are used, it is considered that a complimentary scheme can be provided.