A decision on whether to excuse the builder behind one of Norwich's biggest housing schemes from providing almost 200 affordable homes has been put on hold.
District councillors decided they wanted to make a site visit to Persimmon's development at the former Royal Norwich Golf Club site at Hellesdon before deciding whether to accept the reduction.
Critics had said that if the developer was allowed to reduce the number of affordable homes at the scheme, off Drayton High Road, it would make it harder for local people to get homes in the area.
Broadland District Council's planning committee had been due to decide whether to permit the reduction - and to allow Persimmon to remove more trees than originally anticipated - at a meeting on Wednesday.
But committee chairman - Green Eleanor Laming - told councillors the application relating to the trees would not be considered because Persimmon had made a late submission which officers needed to consider.
With that in mind, she proposed that the committee not consider the affordable homes aspect either, but should make a site visit to better understand the "complex" applications.
She said: "In my view, we need to consider the context of the whole site in much more detail and then look at both applications together, so that everything can be done to ensure that we come to a fair and reasonable decision."
Fellow councillors agreed to postpone the decisions until after the site visit, which would also give officers the opportunity to consider the late submission about the trees.
When the council permitted the scheme in 2016, an obligation was agreed through a section 106 agreement that 33pc of the homes had to be affordable - offered at below-market value for rent or sale to help those unable to buy at market prices.
But Persimmon says market conditions have changed and it is no longer viable to build so many homes or to make as many of them affordable.
The company says, because of rising build costs and part of the site not being suitable for development due to surface water flow concerns, it is now likely to only build 780 of the initially proposed 1,000 homes.
While affordable homes have been built through the first two phases, Persimmon wants the condition removed so it does not have to provide any in the subsequent four phases - which will lead to 185 fewer such properties.
The developers are also looking to remove more trees than originally anticipated - all supposed to be protected by tree preservation orders. That will lead to a loss of almost 220 trees.
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