Legal challenge to thousands of homes around Norwich starts today

A legal challenge to a blueprint for thousands of homes and jobs in and around Norwich has begun today in the High Court.

Campaigner Stephen Heard, from SNUB Stop Norwich Urbanisation sought a judicial review into the blueprint known as the Joint Core Strategy.

Drawn up by the Greater Norwich Development Partnership GNDP, it details where 37,000 new homes will be built and 27,000 jobs created by 2026.

The councils which have drawn it up - Norwich City Council, Broadland District Council, South Norfolk Council, Norfolk County Council and the Broads Authority - say it is a vital strategy to plan for the growing population in the Norwich area.

But critics, including SNUB, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Green county councillors, say it will concrete over swathes of countryside and villages which currently have their own identities, such as Rackheath, will become just suburbs of Norwich.

The judicial review, which had been brought against Broadland District Council, will determine whether the decision making process which led to the strategy being adopted was lawful.

It is being held in the Administrative Court at London's Royal Court of Justice before Mr Justice Owsley and is expected to continue until tomorrow.