27-05-2025
Now it's the DIMBYs! Villages at war over 2,000 house housing estate they DO want to be built in their back yards
Two small communities are locked in an extraordinary dispute about who should have a massive housing development in their area – with both insisting it should be them.
Discussions are underway about 2,000 homes being built at Robertson Barracks in Norfolk - a historic 400-acre military base where Churchill and Eisenhower once met during the Second World War.
But this has sparked a feud as the land lies on the boundary between Swanton Morley and neighbouring Hoe and Worthing – both of which are laying claim to the development as it will generate significant council tax revenue.
Much of the base, including where the barracks are located, is in Swanton Morley.
But the area which once formed an RAF airfield – and where most of the new homes would go up – is in Hoe and Worthing.
Swanton Morley, which has a population of 2,300, is now arguing it would make sense for the entire site to be administered by one parish, triggering accusations by its smaller neighbour, which has 300 residents, of a 'land grab'.
The issue exploded at a recent general purposes meeting hosted by Breckland District Council, the planning authority for the area, where Roger Atterwill, the chairman of Swanton Morley Parish Council, put forward the proposal.
But Celia Daniel, the chairman of Hoe and Worthing Parish Meeting, complained there had been 'no engagement' between the two areas about it.
She said: 'This is deeply concerning. The proposal to enlarge Swanton Morley means reducing the Hoe and Worthing parish area. What they are asking for is morally wrong.'
Michael Goff, who farms land by the airfield, added: 'Fundamentally, this is a land grab.
'This will reduce Hoe and Worthing to an utterly irrelevant, moon-shaped sliver of a parish. It might as well disappear at that point.'
Ms Daniel declined to comment further when contacted by the Mail today, saying only that there had been 'various meetings since last year' about the proposed sustainable development.
But Mr Atterwill, who is also leader of the Independent and Green group at the district council, insisted there was no 'land grab' - and claimed his parish was better suited to take on the responsibility of the new dwellings and more deserving of the funds.
'Between the two villages, Swanton Morley would have all the traffic and all the construction vehicles and everything that goes with that but the houses would be in Hoe and Worthing,' he said.
'Every local authority has to have a local development plan which is made up of the district council's local plan and a selection of parish councils that have done their own neighbourhood plans, so that they can have their own development policies.
'Hoe and Worthing is quite a small hamlet. They don't have a local development plan and they've got no intention of doing one.
'Hoe and Worthing is not a parish council. They're a parish meeting. They are only meeting once or twice a year. They get a total precept of around £1,800 and ours is £98,000, so there is a difference in resources…
'This is very important to Swanton Morley because we're one of the largest villages in the district of Breckland.
'We have a medical practice here, road infrastructure that needs to be improved and the village school grounds could be expanded.
'Hoe and Worthing doesn't really have assets. It's got a couple of dog bins and notice boards but no other assets. They don't have a village hall.'
Mr Atterwill added having a local development plan meant his parish council would be able to lock in Section 106 agreements, under which developers must pay for local facilities in return for planning approval of lucrative sites.
And he said Swanton Morley had ambitions to turn the Grade II listed air traffic control tower at the base into a museum due to its significance.
On July 4, 1942, British prime minster Winston Churchill and General Dwight D Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, watched American and British airmen take off from what was then RAF Swanton Morley on the first combined bombing raid of the war.
The operation targeted German airfields in occupied Holland and involved six US crews from 15th Bombardment Squadron and six RAF crews from 226 Squadron, using Boston light bombers.
Mr Atterwill added: 'There is no intention to land grab because we are not grabbing any land. We're not looking to grab any buildings.
'It's simply moving the boundary around the field. There's no homes or base within that field [at present].'
Locals were bemused by the feud between the modestly-sized communities, noting they might normally be expected to fight expansion to preserve their way of life.
One said: 'I wouldn't call it a David and Goliath situation, more David and David.'
A Swanton Morley resident added: 'This is Dimbyism – definitely in my back yard.'
The RAF handed the base over to the Army in 1995 and it was renamed after Sir William Robertson, head of the British Army during the First World War.
It is currently home to 400 personnel of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards, with family accommodation and a pre-school on-site, but is scheduled to close in 2031.
Troops will relocate to Wales and the site has been earmarked for development under the district council's local plan for the next 20 years as part of efforts to build 16,500 homes in total.
Breckland District Council were contacted by the Mail for a comment.
But speaking at the May 15 general purposes meeting, district councillors said Swanton Morley's proposal had been put forward 'prematurely'.
Conservative member Mark Kiddle-Morris commented: 'Once there is a planning application, then it would be appropriate to consider this. But we are not quite there yet.'
