Thursday 2nd February 2023 - Spring Mode and Affordable Housing in Overstrand

As it’s still winter, not sure if this can be classified as spring cleaning but I was fired up on Wednesday and washed the walls in our kitchen. With cd’s playing, stored in my Mp3 player, they helped pass the time on what ultimately proves to be a boring task. The plants I ordered from the specialist grower were delivered yesterday. Well packed and in good condition, they are ‘resting’ next to the greenhouse before I put them in the ground I have prepared. The geranium seeds I planted are germinating and in the next day or so, I will be putting the first sowing of tomato seedlings into individual pots. Yes, it’s still winter but, I am definitely getting into spring mode.

We used to attend the Parish Council meetings every month. That was until Covid kicked in and although restrictions are now few, we have never got back into the routine of attending. However, an item on this month’s agenda caught my eye. ‘Affordable Housing - To receive a talk from Anna Clarke, Community Housing Enabler from NNDC and Ed Mumford-Smith, Broadland Housing regarding Affordable Housing in Overstrand.’ We decided to attend the meeting to hear more. It was 2019 when Anna Clarke last spoke to the Council about Affordable Housing, using what is termed as exception sites for their location. Since then, Peter discovered, a variety of plots in the village were identified as potential locations. Most of these were discounted, for one reason or another, and it looked as though part of the field next to the telephone exchange on the Mundesley Road would be the only contender. This was confirmed, at the meeting, by Anna Clarke. However, although the landowner has agreed to the sale, this does not mean the development will go ahead. Ed Mumford-Smith showed a plan of the proposed location, along with photos of the type of properties Broadland Housing have already developed and talked about the numbers and design of housing that would be suitable for this plot of land and Overstand’s diverse architecture. I am not going to say anymore because, as I have already said, the development may not go ahead – there are many hoops to go through, all of which will take time.

Today’s photo was taken the other morning when the promenade was being swept, once again! Sorry, but this did look to be a pointless exercise given there is an area, surrounding Morrisons supermarket, in Cromer which would benefit more from being cleaned.