A bid to build on the site of a former scout hut is back before planners for the fourth time in eight years.
Plans for eight two-bed flats on the south side of Dereham Road in Norwich, once home to the Vikings Venture Scout Hut, have been divisive among councillors and the community.
Under plans submitted to Norwich City Council earlier this month, a three-storey building would be built between the Dell Crescent and Whistlefish Court.
Tensions over plans on the site came to a head in December 2020, when an exasperated councillor, Judith Lubbock, branded her colleagues "idiots" for refusing the application, getting caught with her mic on in an online meeting.
After the meeting, she said she was “exasperated”, but apologised.
Following the meeting, the developers called the council's decision "obscene" and won approval at an appeal hearing in August 2021.
However, the developers then submitted another application which Norwich City Council turned down in November.
Reasons for refusal focused on how the development would intensify the use of an already busy road, that there were too many parking spaces on the site and concern over the impact on existing trees.
No members of the public have commented on the latest plans but the November scheme saw five comments - three objecting, one in support and one neutral.
Objections pointed to concerns about former chalk mines below the area, access to the site and tree removal. While the supporter said there was already appropriate access to the site and the number of flats was small.
In the latest plans, the developers have reduced parking spaces from 13 to 10.
In a planning statement, the agent, Building Plans Ltd, said new access arrangements would address the concerns of local people, particularly those at Dell Crescent.
The site has a lengthy planning history, with an application refused by the city council in 2014. It was later allowed on appeal in 2016 but the permission has since expired.
Reasons for refusal in 2014 centred on the land not being suitable for development and traffic concerns on nearby cul-de-sac Dell Crescent.
The December 2020 council papers said the area is “known to have experienced subsidence”, with chalk quarrying and a limekiln believed to have existed there. But a 2008 report which advised that development could take place without harming the area was still relevant, the papers added.
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