The Northern Distributer Road AKA Norwich Northern Bypass

[ChrisB]

Certainly the NNUH is going to need careful consideration. The new car park was hardly used two years ago, now it too is always full, why did they not build it multistory? I hope expansion of the surgical facilities are on the plan but of course NNUH's real estate is owned by Barclays Bank or in other words Sheikh Mansour and Qatar Holdings so who knows!

[jillR]

1 minute ago, ChrisB said:

The new car park was hardly used two years ago, now it too is always full,

not just full but overflowing onto all the grass verges and double yellows during visiting hours.

[jillR]

I stopped half way along the road works on plumstead road at Thorpe end to take pictures to cover

360 degrees.

[Labrador]

Take that picture again in a few years Jill and all you will see is housing, ohh, and the road bridge crossing the Plumstead road and railway.

[ChrisB]

Get the high speed rail link sorted, and the next round of roads and Norfolk will be no different to the home counties. 

I was watching my DVD of David Dimbleby's "Picture of Britain" (2005) last week. In the "Flatlands" episode he praises the unique character of the area which he attributes to it's remoteness. And how the locals like it that way and put up with the longer travel times to protect that uniqueness.

As I have said before living in one of the "bunch" vllages I think we will be protected in my lifetime (I'm 67) by the two bridges but Norfolk as we know and love it will be unrecognizable in twenty years.

On Easter Sunday I was walking along the Paston Way nr. Edingthorpe and was stopped by a retired couple  who had lived and brought up their family in Rackheath and Salhouse, they were in the area house hunting, to escape the developers. They said they thought that they were settled but could not stand the thought of being boxed in. They bought their present house so they could have country walks and bird watch without using their car, but that it will be, now, a short lived possibility.

[BroadScot]

5 hours ago, Labrador said:

Take that picture again in a few years Jill and all you will see is housing, ohh, and the road bridge crossing the Plumstead road and railway.

And STILL red cones! 

[marshman]

And no workmen!! Just around the bend they even have a 20mph zone - with no cones and no workmen either!! Why cannot those daft restrictions be suspended when nothing is being done although to be fair, even the average Norfolk driver mostly ignores these ridiculous limits

Chris I am glad you think the rail situation will alter any time soon. Norwich in 90 is still a fantasy and will not happen until they alter Trowse bridge and thats not even on the distant horizon! How about 2030? Even then it will hardly be high speed!

i think you will all be surprised at just how long it will take to build all those new houses - our building industry has not produced enough new houses to cope over the last 20 years - what makes you think it will do so now. I reckon it will take sometime to build them -  probably not in the lifetime of most contributors!!

[Broadsword]

We drove into the city yesterday at around 12.30 p.m. and EVERY major car park was already flagged up as FULL when we came down Earlham Road. Even though the signs all say 'no queueing' for Chapelfield, I could not blame any of us for doing so anyway... since there was nowhere else to go! Shops, restaurants, all heaving...

[jillR]

4 hours ago, marshman said:

our building industry has not produced enough new houses to cope

and they never will.

even when every available scrap is built on.

 

[Timbo]

10 hours ago, jillR said:

and they never will.

even when every available scrap is built on.

 

15 hours ago, marshman said:

i think you will all be surprised at just how long it will take to build all those new houses - our building industry has not produced enough new houses to cope over the last 20 years - what makes you think it will do so now. I reckon it will take sometime to build them -  probably not in the lifetime of most contributors!!

Oh I dunno, I drive through and past many new build housing estates on my way down to Norfolk, there are three on my doorstep, all two thirds unoccupied. A forest of 'To Let' and 'For Sale' signs testament that the houses are not fit for requirements.

In my home town (population 20,000) 5,500 houses are currently being built, many on a flood plain, and 90% are to be three to five bedroomed and destined to join the rest of the vacant housing stock. Having recently had a taste of the idiocy of housing developers trying to house Uncle Albert in suitable accommodation I was left scratching my head at the mentality of these people. A bidding war erupted over the two solitary single and double bedroomed houses on a 200 house estate. I dropped out of the contest when the price hit £150,000, final figure was in excess of £200,000. Only fifty homes on that estate have residents, the rest are empty.

This lead me to wonder exactly who was going to occupy the large amount of three and four bedroomed, empty housing in the town? With no industry where were they going to work? With no infrastructure such as roads and rail how were they going to get to travel to work or bring work to the town? What about medical facilities? The local council's take on these issues when I asked were 'we're going to build a shopping center...with some three and four bedroom houses near by'.

I think Marshman is right in that it will take a long time for the building industry to build housing suitable to our needs. It will take even longer to get the idiocy that 'everyone should aspire to own a three bedroomed house' engendered by the politicals over the last thirty odd years out of their system.

 

 

[marshman]

Oh thats good then - if the market is oversupplied then house prices will fall! Its an open market and will react to simple supply/ demand criteria.and finally the expectation that house prices will always rise , will finally be seen to be false!

[BroadScot]

A fair number of the new builds in my area are two and three storey flats. We are in the commuter route to Glasgow by train (one every 15 minutes) so even the detached new builds are selling well. 35minutes by car to the city centre.

I think Timbo hits the nail on the head, if there is plenty of industry and service sector work, property will sell and sell quickly, as it is where I live.

Iain

[TheQ]

The outbreak of work has Extended on the Coltishall road, there is a 3ft? deep hole roadway width,  running 50ft toward the airport, it looks like they've deeply excavated, to a solid base, for an entrance road to commence building. More very large earth moving equipment is on site and the metal fencing has been erected.

Similarly on the Wroxham road various holes and embankments have been build and more machinery has arrived.

 Oh and the mini roundabouts at Hoveton have sprouted more signs warning of 4 way traffic lights, I'm expecting a long queue tonight...

[TheQ]

New cars being made in Norfolk

8 minutes ago, Jonzo said:

I think the council's strategic solution is for people to use the Park and Ride - They're very good and all round the city. Not to mention much cheaper than city-centre car parks.

On that basis, I don't think we'll see a huge increase in the number of city-centre car parking spaces. There is a new car currently being built at Rose Lane, though.

New cars being made in Norfolk?!!

[JennyMorgan]

23 minutes ago, TheQ said:

New cars being made in Norfolk

New cars being made in Norfolk?!!

Lotus!

[JennyMorgan]

9 minutes ago, Jonzo said:

Oops.... Car Park! That's what they're building at Rose Lane!

Although you will find new cars being made in Norfolk too http://www.lotuscars.com/ and http://www.zenoscars.com/ 

A new car park in Rose lane? Trade for the famous Rose Lane 'ladies of the night' must be on the increase then!

[Broadsword]

If the City's strategy is to get us all to use Park and Ride, then it needs some thought.  When I used it some time back it was reasonably priced but a bit of a fag... It has now gone up considerably and frankly is NOT cheaper than using the city centre car parks unless I am alone. Two of us and a fair bit of shopping and it becomes a rather undesirable solution for us.

It's typical of such strategies all over the country - if they have to be run for shareholder profit, then they won't really work. If you want to keep people from driving into the city and parking, then buses, P&R etc. must be very good and properly subsidised. The profit motive has led to the loss of services all over the place - whereas once it was understood that highly profitable services subsidised the less profitable.  Remember buses in your village, railway stations close at hand?

[TheQ]

They have been busy, that hole by the Coltishall road has been mostly filled with concrete definately a temporary access road for the build,  mean time there was single lane working with lights there, you couldn't reach 30 mph!! There is also a big bulldozer pushing back all the soft soil to the sides.

As I reached the mini roundabouts in hoveton they were loading the temporary lights into the back of a van. Couldn't see what they did today though.

[ChrisB]

1 hour ago, Jonzo said:

It depends on how you're using the P&R, but after 12pm it's just £2.50 per person for cash so it's not a bad deal really. I understand your use case, but as an individual Park and Ride is substantially cheaper than parking in the city or using the regular buses which is why I and many others use it every day. The traffic in the city would be ludicrous if we didn't. And as a season ticket holder I pay less than £2.50 per day even as a peak user.

Obviously if you're buying lots of things or are popping in very early or late then you're better parking in the city, but for general trips it's ideal particularly as there are bus lanes which cut through the horrendous traffic that we've had on the North side of the city for many years.

The P&R was subsidised by the council until recently, but I guess they have to pay for the extra NDR expense caused by the Green Party somehow.

Park and Ride every time for me.

Not prepared for the damage any more in St Stephens or John Lewis.

Cars just get bigger, but the parking spces are still based on the dimensions of Austin A30s, Standard 8s and Ford Anglias.

[BroadScot]

Thank goodness they still make the Blue Badge spaces wider, but it has been noted a few places try to sqeeze another car in!

Iain

[LizG]

Another consequence..............

http://www.edp24.co.uk/property/800_new_homes_and_a_school_could_be_built_on_edge_of_norwich_1_4497752

[Poppy]

3 minutes ago, w-album said:

Another consequence..............

http://www.edp24.co.uk/property/800_new_homes_and_a_school_could_be_built_on_edge_of_norwich_1_4497752

It's not a consequence - this and more to come is the whole purpose of the NDR!

[LizG]

21 minutes ago, w-album said:

Another consequence..............

This was my politely correct polite take on the situation - having seen the urban sprawl fan out of Sprowston over the last 40 years (not just the recent housing) every time I drive along Blue Boar Lane and now as I drive into Wroxham along the Salhouse Road, I feel more unhappy.  I know there are people out there desperate for housing and some will argue that we do need it, but I am still to be convinced, well not in Norfolk anyway

I have a daughter and her boyfriend looking this very weekend for a house but they don't want to live in Norfolk, they need to be close to a commuter route that takes one into London and one in a different direction because that is where their careers are and the prices they are talking about are seriously cruel.

(ps I know this subject has been touched on before on this  thread and others but the problem doesn't go away)

[TheQ]

I know It's Her Majesties Birthday, But I think they've put the guard post up in the wrong place.  There is a little Red Guard hut appeared beside the Coltishall road at the Road works!! ( Airport side).

[TheQ]

The future NDR from Coltishall road to Buxton / Spixworth road  is now well defined as a route has been bulldozed through the fields.