Land Off Festival Road , Billingford Data via plota.co.uk

PL/2025/1607/FMIN - FMIN minor application Approved

Proposal

Retrospective application for 1 no. permanent Traveller pitch (siting of a two-bed static caravan) with associated parking/amenity, installation of a package treatment plant and drainage field and additional soft landscaping. Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
23 Oct 2025
✓
Approved
7 Sept 2026

Approved on 7 Sept 2026 · Committee · Last checked 19 Oct 2026

Planning committee

Decided by Breckland Planning Committee on 1 Sept 2026.

Approved

As officers recommended.

  • Officers advised approval because the identified need and secured habitat mitigation outweighed the site's location and sustainable travel concerns.
  • The parish council and residents raised concerns about the site's history, countryside location, access, amenity, ecology and the River Wensum.
  • The committee approved the application by 7 votes to 1, subject to the report's conditions.
Read how the committee decided The proposal, planning history, objections, officer assessment, public speakers, committee debate and decision.

Source: Plota analysis of Breckland's committee minutes of 1 Sept 2026.

Documents 38

Application forms 1

PDF Commenter’s name hidden Show Application Forms/Certificates (public/redacted) · 27 Oct 2025 View ↗

All documents on the council site ↗

Associated applications 2

  • FullPL/2025/1607/FMINThis application
    Retrospective application for 1 no. permanent Traveller pitch (siting of a two-bed static caravan) with associated…

    Conditions details submitted for 6

Site constraints 4

Nutrient neutrality catchment: River Wensum SAC
New homes and overnight accommodation must show nutrient neutrality before approval.
Natural England advice: extra wastewater in these catchments harms protected habitats, so schemes must offset their nutrient load, usually through credits.
Agricultural land, grade 2
Best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. Natural England's Provisional ALC map (1:250,000, 1970s), which most planning maps still show, had this area as grade 3. The predicted grade is Defra's current estimate; only a site survey settles it.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Habitat network: Network Expansion Zone
Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.
Also on the record
Radon affected area, class 2.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · Not green belt · No listed building at the site

Checked on 2 November 2026. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the British Geological Survey and UK Health Security Agency (radon, contains BGS materials © UKRI) and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

Work with planning data?

Every application in Breckland - and every UK council - as a live feed, an API, or a bulk CSV export.

About Plota's data service

Important details

Council
Breckland
Application type
FMIN minor application
Received
23 Oct 2025
Validated
23 Oct 2025
Ward
Upper Wensum
Parish
Billingford
Case officer
Show
Target decision
30 Jan 2026
Decision
Granted with conditions
Decision date
7 Sept 2026
Decision level
Committee
Applicant
Show
Agent
John Dickie Associates

How this decision compares

Decided in 319 days from validation, 232 days slower than Breckland's median of 87 for new homes. Approved, as 62% of new homes here are.

35%decided within 8 weeks
62%approved
12%go to committee

Plota live figures for new homes decided by Breckland in the last twelve months, from validation. Breckland decision record →

Consultation & key dates

Committee
1 Sept 2026
Statutory expiry
30 Jan 2026
Breckland
Planning Authority Score
8.6/10
Excellent
#14 of 296 councils
Relevant to this application:
Householder decisions

Breckland is faster than most councils at deciding householder applications, ranking #32 out of 296. Householder applications are more likely to be approved here than most councils, with a 98% approval rate vs 90% nationally.

More permissive than most councils
98% approved vs 90% nationally
These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance
Breckland decision statistics
Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026
84%
Overall approval rate
Below avg (87%) #216 of 296
98%
Householder approved
Above avg (90%) #12 of 296
81%
Decided in 8 weeks
Above avg (63%) #32 of 296
34%
Extended time limit
Below avg (41%) #84 of 296
54%
Minor dwellings approved
178 decided (1-9 homes)
88%
Major dwellings approved
17 decided (10+ homes)
801
Total decisions
128 refused in the year to March 2026