Thorpe Marriott Greenway Design and access statement Broadland District Council Thorpe Lodge 1 Yarmouth Road Norwich NR6 7ND www.broadland.gov.uk Produced August 2018 Thorpe Marriott Greenway Design and access statement The Thorpe Marriott Tree Belt is currently owned and managed by Broadland District Council. The areas owned by the council, and the subject of this application, are marked in red: 3 There are two small strips of land within the proposed development area, marked A and B, that are not owned by Broadland Council but are owned by Brown and Co. Agreement has been sought from the landowner to extend the proposals across these two areas of land. The Thorpe Marriott Greenway is designed to promote better greenspace and access in the Thorpe Marriott area. In order to enhance green links between the Thorpe Marriot estate, the Marriott’s Way, Nabour Furlong, Pendlesham Rise, Littlewood (three woodlands owned by Broadland District Council) and the NDR green bridge that leads to Drayton Drewray. The Council are proposing that a path connecting these sites be established through the tree belt that skirts around the Thorpe Marriott Estate. In order to complete this link the proposals would involve installing a new path through the tree belt. There is currently no formal footpath through the belt and, although public access is not restricted, it is not currently well developed or used. Broadland Council already own and manage similar sites where access is well established, providing the local area with valuable recreational greenspace for walking and cycling. 4 Wilde Woods - Rackheath (example) 1.2 kilometer circular woodland walk. Mixed broadleaf woodland. No formal dressing on paths. 5 Thorpe End woodland walk - Thorpe End (example) 726 kilometer circular woodland walk. Mixed broadleaf woodland. No formal dressing on paths. Plans to extend the path network to the west of the entrance included in Neighbourgh Plan. 6 The site The site covers an area of approximately 3110metres squared. The proposed path will span approximately 1722 metres in length. At the farthest south western section of the route the proposed path meets a small coppice wet woodland called Nabour Furlong. At this point the proposed path will link up to the permissive path in the adjacent field. The route will then follow the path until it meets up with an access point leading onto the Marriott’s Way. There is currently no formal footpath through the belt and, although public access is not restricted, it is not currently well developed or used. There would be 9 access points in and out of the woodland belt in the form of wooded kissing gates. Access points are marked in red on the plan below: Access point where highway crossing would be installed. Example of wooden kissing gates and fence such as those that are proposed to be installed at the entrance points as marked on the above plan. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 7 Access across Reepham Road There will be an access point installed as part of the proposals to allow users to cross Reepham Road, leading to a footpath and pedestrian bridge over the Broadland Northway towards Drayton Drewary. The crossing point and route is indicated on the plan below: Creating access across the road will require the current hedging to be removed adjacent to the crossing point. This shall allow for maximum visibility splays and awareness to approaching drivers of pedestrians waiting to cross the highway. A kissing gate will be installed at the woodland edge of the remaining hedgerow, slowing users down on their approach to the highway. There will be a formal surfaced crossing point both sides of the highway which will overcome the need to step off the raised verge onto, and off, the road. A dropped kerbed ‘pram crossing’ type arrangement will be installed on the woodland side of the crossing point. Indicative illustration - not to scale 8 Thorpe Marriott tree belt Landscape context and street view Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 2 Figure 1 Images taken from Google Maps 9 Figure 1 – image taken from Google Street View. Figure 2 – image taken from Google Street View. Figure 3 – image taken from Google Street View. Dreway Drive. Figure 4 – Image taken form Google Street view. Pyehurn Mews. 10 The proposed path The proposed path would be approximately 1.5 metres wide and would be created through scraping the woodland surface by approximately 75mm, installing a geo-textile fabric, and infilling with 75mm of 20cm hoggin. Where specific root protection is deemed necessary, for larger specimen trees, a cell web membrane with a no-dig zone would be installed. This information will be covered in greater depth in the arboricultural method statement and arboricultural impact assessment. Area using permissive path Figure 5 11 Method for creating a scraped and dressed path 1 2 3 Once geo-textile is in-filled a Hoggin dressing 4 of 75mm depth will be applied 5 Permissive path The permissive path section of the route, marked blue in figure 5, is already well frequented. This permissive path will join the tree belt to the Marriott’s Way. Steps will be installed where the path meets the Marriott’s Way to enhance this already well used entrance and access point. This proposed route skirts around the edge of the woodland area of Nabour Furlong avoiding it completely - the rationale being that using this path avoids impacting the ecologically sensitive area and the wet ground of this site. 12 Community engagement On the 3 May 2018 Broadland District Council sent a consultation letter out to the 157 residents whose properties directly abut the Thorpe Greenway site. The letter was written to make residents aware of Broadland District Council’s intention to submit a full planning application later in the year. 10 letters objecting to the scheme were received, as well as a letter and a phone call in support of the scheme. The content of the objections from residents were primarily focused on security concerns - there was a perception that the path could potentially increase rates of crime in the area by facilitating an easy route in and out of back gardens. Whilst some properties along the route are hardly visible from the prosed path, such as those in the image below, others are more exposed. As a result of resident concerns Broadland Council Officers met with the Norfolk Police Architectural Liaison Officer and walked the proposed site. View from the The Architectural Liaison Officer suggested a series of proposed path precautions that have subsequently been designed into towards properties on the proposed scheme to limit the likelihood of any the western Taverham associated crime. One of these precautions is to use section of the route. defensive planting on site where rear boundaries are the most exposed. Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Holly can help to create a defensive boundary reducing the likelihood of any potential intruders. Installing kissing gates was also suggested by the Architectural Liaison Officer as a way of slowing anyone down on their approach into, and out of the Thorpe Greenway site. These have now been included in the proposed scheme at access points. Support for the scheme voiced an interest in using the tree belt for recreational purposes and as an off road link to and from the Marriott’s Way. The ecological enhancements that the scheme proposes to deliver (in terms of tree planting and bird and bat box installation) were also supported. Both Drayton and Taverham Parish Councils were consulted about the Thorpe Greenway project. This was done through the consultation of the emerging West Broadland Green Infrastructure Plan that this project forms a part of, and also as a standalone project. Officers from Broadland Council have also met with members of the Taverham Neighbourhood Plan group. There are plans to meet with local groups in the future to discuss using the site for community projects. 13 .