I was heartened by the high level of response from residents to my previous letter on the Earl of Leicester, and to the article in the Green Party’s July ward newsletter on the same subject. Everyone who contacted us felt strongly that the building should be preserved, many saying that it is an important historic landmark. Many people shared the Green Party’s view that, if flats were to be built on the site, this should be achieved through converting the existing building rather than knocking it down and starting from scratch. Not only would this mean that an historic landmark would be preserved, but it would have positive implication for the environment by reducing the need for new building materials and the problem of disposing of old building materials.

The planning application for the new block of flats (by East Anglian Property Ltd) was advertised by the City Council Planning Department in late June, with a consultation period running through most of July. Local residents and the Green Councillors were given the impression that the consultation was about whether or not the old building should be demolished as well as about the details of the planned new building for sixteen flats. When the Green Party July ward newsletter went to the press at the beginning of the month, we decided to tell residents about how to take part in the consultation and about our view on the importance of preserving the existing building.

As soon as we heard about the planning application, Nelson ward Councillor Jessica Goldfinch contacted English Heritage to arrange for them to visit the site and investigate whether or not the building should be given listed status. English Heritage representatives believed that they had until the end of the consultation period on the planning application to carry out this work. However, on 11 July demolition work on the building began. On that day, three of the Green Councillors spoke to Planning Department officers and were each told that there was nothing the Council could do to prevent the demolition of the building because it was not listed. We have since found out via English Heritage that there was something the Council could have done: it could have placed a Building Preservation Notice on the Earl of Leicester, which would have prevented the developers from demolishing it until English Heritage had carried out its investigations for the possible listing of the building.

At the full Council meeting last week Jessica Goldfinch asked why the Green Councillors and local residents had not been told of the option of a Building Preservation Notice. Judith Lubbock, the LibDem Chair of the Planning Committee, defended the decision of officers not to inform residents and the Green Councillors of this option, saying that officers did not believe the building would obtain listed status and that the Council could be liable for paying compensation to the developers if listed status was not granted. Green Party members were not at all happy with this answer. We believe that it is vital that residents and Councillors at least know the options available to them.

On 11 July, the day demolition began, the developers assured Green Councillor Adrian Ramsay that they would be conducting the demolition slowly, over a number of weeks, initially beginning with just the tiles. At the same time, we started a petition calling upon the developers to halt the demolition until English Heritage had carried out it listed building investigations. Thank you to everyone who signed this petition. Unfortunately, after the Evening News ran a story on the issue on 12 July and the developers knew of the campaign by local residents and the Green Councillors to get the building listed, the demolition work was suddenly speeded up such that around half of it was gone within a few days. By the time English Heritage was able to view the building, a significant about of it had been demolished.

So, sadly, this campaign has essentially been lost. Local residents have been continuing to contact us to ask what can be done to protest about the situation. There are two possibilities:

Write to the developers to complain that they wouldn’t halt the demolition until the listed building status had been investigated (and that they speeded up the demolition when they heard about the campaign for the building to be listed). The person to write to is:

Bob Delafield
Red Cliff House
Lake View Drive
Brundall
Norwich
NR13 5LT

Write to the City Council to complain that local residents and the Green Councillors were not informed of the option of a Building Preservation Notice. The case officer for the Earl of Leicester Application is:

Michelle Guppy
Planning Department
Norwich City Council
City Hall
St Peter Street
Norwich
NR2 1NH

We very much hope that the campaign over the Earl of Leicester will make Council officers think twice in the future before deciding to withhold information from Councillors, and make the LibDems think twice before supporting officers in such decisions. This issue has highlighted a need for planning regulation (locally and nationally) to favour, wherever possible, the conversion of existing buildings over demolition and the Green Party will continue to lobby for this. Such measures are needed to prevent profit-seeking developers from outside Norwich buying pieces of land in the city and taking decisions that override the wishes of local people.

The consultation period on the application for the new flats is now closed. However, if you have any views on the application that you would like us to put forward to the Planning Committee then please let us know. Some residents have already contacted us to say that they are concerned about the traffic implication of the sixteen new properties being built at this location. Other local residents are now lobbying the Council to ensure that the new flats are called ‘Earl of Leicester Corner’, or something similar. This would admittedly only be a small consolation for the unacceptable loss of an historic landmark – but we will support the campaign for the new flats (if given planning permission) to be named as such.

Sorry I am not able to report more positive news but thank you to all the residents who have been in contact with us over this issue. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to discuss this or any other matter.

Yours sincerely