Plans to construct two new petrol stations either side of the A47 trunk road in Dereham, Norfolk, have been refused after the local authority deemed they would “cause significant harm to the character and openness of the landscape”.
An application to construct forecourts at the site had been approved in 2009, but permission had lapsed after the development failed to commence.
New plans were submitted in late 2023 and mid-2024, with few alterations made to the proposals compared to the previously approved applications, but changes to planning legislation enacted since the original submission saw Breckland Council turn both proposals down.
The sites would have effectively been mirror images of each other, with a forecourt and shop together with food to go services, an HGV refuelling lane and shower block, plus space for EV chargers.
As well as turning the applications down on the basis they would be out of keeping with the surrounding landscape, Breckland Council said the proposals had not demonstrated “a satisfactory access arrangement” that was “acceptable in terms of highway safety” for vehicles joining and leaving the A47.
The authority also raised doubts over whether drainage strategies had been sufficiently considered, stating that the application had not demonstrated that the plans “safeguarded from flood risk and that flood risk would not be increased elsewhere”. Concerns over the sites’ impacts on local biodiversity and ecology were also flagged.
