The new houses in Spooner Row are listed for sale.
May I remind all those thinking about purchasing these properties of a number of facts. Those houses situated on (Bunwell Road) should note that this road is a designated HGV route. Those houses built off Station Road should also note that Station Road is on a designated HGV route and at a junction which, at school times, see's a huge amount of traffic from the School - cars, coaches, delivery vehicles. Children and parents are also regularly seen walking in the road and in School Lane during this time as the car park is inadequate. Station Road is also heavily congested when the level crossing barriers come down, and the vehicle queue extends past the private road off Station Road, where the new properties are located. Please expect huge lorries to pass by at all hours and a lot of congestion at times. You may not expect this for such an apparently 'rural' location.
Spooner Row is a great place to live and is handy for commuting to Norwich, but please bear in mind that our village has been given 'service village' status, which basically means we will have a lot more development, and planning permission for more houses and industrial units will no doubt appear very soon. Bear in mind also that if you currently enjoy a field view this may well not last. For those intending to get into Norwich for work, the A11 is also becoming quite busy and there are quite often regular traffic jams (for some miles) at the Thickthorn roundabout, due to the fact that the A11 was in recent years dualled near Thetford, which has basically moved the bottleneck from Thetford to the Thickthorn roundabout! The train station in Spooner Row is wholly inappropriate for working in Norwich or Cambridge and trains do not stop here at the times required and you will need to use Wymondham station, which may require you to leave your car parked at the Station where there have been reported issues of vandalism. There is also no sensible bus service in Spooner Row and you, or your children, may need to walk half a mile along the HGV route on Station Road without a pavement and negotiate two roundabouts to get to the bus stop!
Oh yes, the broadband speed you can expect is nowhere near that reported on Zoopla of standard 5.9Mbps; 1.3Mbps is the best you can expect, unless you want to opt for WiFi from a church spire or satellite broadband, which are reported to be unreliable (see the Broadband thread in this forum). There are no plans for Fibre as we are at least 3 miles from the exchanges in Attleboprough or Wymondham. There are also no shops in the village and the closest is a small M&S at the petrol station on the A11!
Making a house purchase is serious business. I simply want to make future residents aware of our situation, before any decisions are made to relocate here. You will of course be most welcome to our village, should you decide to move here, but please be aware that the vast majority of residents are quite unhappy about the changes that are going on here. Read some of the threads on this message board and you will see why....
Okay, so the good bits about living in the village are ?
As for designated HGV route, it’s complete nonsense. Show me any document that states this, there is no such thing, road traffic can go anywhere it wants. If an industrial unit gets erected down the other side of Spooner Row, with large amounts of HGV traffic then Chapel Road will get it, it doesn’t make it a route. HGVs will go anywhere that’s the most convenient for them, simple.
The only formal discussion regarding HGVs was with Banham Poultry, which is ludicrous in itself as at Bums Bank it’s way better going through Attleborough.
Lots of traffic is from unauthorised planning which everyone on here complains about yet no one does anything.
That's not true. Just look at South Norfolk Council's planning website and all the concerns submitted there, plus the all the postings on here and all the objections on the Norfolk County Council website with the Newell's unlawful operation for example. Lots of people do object, but the authorities don't give a damn and give approval or turn a blind eye.
As for the HGV route, it definitely is, unfortunately. There was a planning application in the EDP about 1997/1998, which was approved despite lots of objections. Many attended a meeting at the school, followed up by a larger meeting at the village hall to object, but the HGV route was approved soon after. It was because of the HGV route that a handful of campaigners pushed for a footpath from the school to the church, which thankfully was built as pedestrians had to walk on the road with fast-moving lorries.
Chapel Road is not a designated HGV route, although it is getting an increasing amount of lorries. The designated HGV route only applies to Station Road and Bunwell Road allowing extremely large and often dirty lorries to go pass through the heart of the village, adversely impacting everything they pass including the primary school, village hall, level crossing, church, pub, private residences, a tight junction and not forgetting lorries which mount the pavement.
New houses need appropriate infrastructure to be sustainable and thrive and this isn't happening.
Not sure I agree with assertion that we are not an HGV route. You do not formally designate you just pass HGV limits on all other routes to force HGVs into the village. Look at the number of voters and then shaft the smaller group which is why we always get the the s****y end of the stick
If no one does anything, is it not about time YOU vote for people who will do something rather than cow tow to Party Politics from out of touch megalamaniacs and local would be polticians who have a clearly deluded perception that they have a career in Politics and do nothing except to further their own prospects. This is apparent at levels from MPs to parish councillors
What your talking about is a planning condition, it does not form a generic hgv route, it only applies to that one planning application. If a road was created let’s say accross the field before station road, HGVs would cut through that if it was a sizeable road. That’s life, drive through many villages in Norfolk and your find resident erected signs saying no HGV traffic.
Ask your self a question, if you had to go a specific route that was a right pain in the arse, what would you do ? Find an alternative. So what’s the answer :)
Nope, you're wrong. It was discussed at length that Spooner Row would be on a designated HGV route and County Council reps were at the meeting to debate this 20 years ago.
Ok, so show me an official document that states that ? Just because a few councillors get together and present this to a village doesn’t make it a lawful.
Look at it another way, Newalls turn right out of their business upto the t junction, left, then down through Spooner Row Etc. Do they do this because Spooner Row is a HGV route ? No because they want to get to the A11 asap from their location. Ever seen them going down Silver Street or through Attleborough ? They go left out of their business to reach those locations even though they could go through the alleged HGV route ? Do they care ? Is there anything you can do about it ? No, they can drive where they please. Vehicles go where the best/fastest route to their destination there is, you can’t even get highways to enforce weight restrictions on bridges so you can forget HGV routes.
You obviously don't live in the village or you would not be so supportive of the problematic HGV route.
A planning application was approved for Spooner Row to have a designated HGV route years ago or perhaps the many who attended the meeting, with many councillors present, all imagined it.
I have heard that property prices are falling in London, and usually, that trend spreads elsewhere and could be coming here.
The postings on this site are so much more light-hearted and happy when residents are not forced to discuss unwanted new housing developments forced on them.
