Snetterton villagers’ anger as industrial development threatens to ruin rural village

It is a Norfolk village like no other. The A11 thunders through the middle of it, lined with low-slung industrial units, a motorsport track on one side and a power station on the other. Yet there is another – surprisingly peaceful – side to the ancient village of Snetterton.

Away from the main road, to its north, past the 13th century All Saints church, the area takes a more rural, idyllic character. Acting as a buffer between the two sides of Snetterton – the industrial and the traditional – is the suitably bucolic-sounding World Horse Welfare.

Over several acres of land, this charity – with Princess Anne as a patron – cares for dozens of horses as part of its campaigning work to improve welfare standards for the animals. Yet a decision by the organisation to sell off some of that land for development has angered many locals and left them fearing that their buffer is being eroded, with Snetterton’s concrete sprawl threatening to overwhelm their village.

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Developers are looking to build a new industrial complex on 130 acres of green fields currently owned by the charity and other landowners. The space – dubbed the East Anglia Logistics Hub – would be used for warehousing and distribution, with units that could be up to 1.6 million square feet in size.

When the charity’s plan to sell the land to London-based Boudica Developments was revealed in April it drew fury from locals, who established a Save Snetterton campaign.

Geraint ‘Gen’ Ellis, who has lived in the village for around 40 years, said the scheme has generated “considerable opposition”. He has become one of the key players in the campaign and ran unopposed for the parish council at last month’s elections, partly in response to the issue. All the previous councillors, except one, stood down.

The 73-year-old said: “We have been here 40 years. This will bring light pollution, noise, and the rural aspect of the village will be ruined. It’s a rural location, people come here to get away from people.

“You can hear the racetrack sometimes, but we knew that was there when we moved here. This could be foisted on us when there’s another better bit of land on the other side of the A11.”

If the development goes ahead it would be within one field of the main village and Mr Ellis’ house.

“My opposition is on an environmental basis as well,” he said. “This land is meant to be a corridor for migrating birds. Even just for that side of things, it would be an environmental disaster.”

While horses graze on some of the proposed site, other land is currently used for farming.

Mr Ellis added: “Food security in this country is so important. This is 135 acres – that they are trying to sell that off would be ridiculous. We have got no problem with land being developed on the other side of the A11, there’s about 300 acres there [ready for development], which is not near the village, it’s only near the racetrack. Why try to develop this land when all the infrastructure is already in place over there?”

Sara Goldsborough, who lives nearby, said: “It’s only a small little hamlet and if they build up there it will be awful. There will be more traffic coming through. It would be way too much for us to take.

“When there were works on the A11 before there was lots of traffic coming through here – it was awful. I couldn’t get out of our driveway when they were coming through. I don’t think we could cope with it.”

Locals feel the World Horse Welfare has “alienated” itself from the community, which has previously cherished its presence. A recent decision by the charity to introduce a fee for local dog walkers to use its fields also went down badly. Locals argue the routes have always been open to the public for free, with some believing there is a historic right of way through the area.

Fred Norris, 70, who has lived in the area for almost 50 years, said he walked the fields since he moved there. He said: “I used to walk my dog round the field, but they wanted to charge me £50 a year to walk round there after Covid. I was stopped by an employee who said, ‘It’s only 14p a day’ but I have walked it every day for 50 years.”

Mr Norris accused the charity of “money grabbing”. He said the village was being asked to put up with a lot, including the possible A11 development, power stations and walking fees, but they got nothing in return.

“When the work was going on on the A11 we had juggernauts cutting up the road, ruining the roads and hedges but nothing was done to [fix it]. There’s so much industry going in up there and gradually it is creeping down into the village. It’s all about money, it’s like the people of this village don’t count for anything.”

Ms Ellis, from the Save Snetterton campaign, said they are now looking at asking Norfolk County Council to establish whether there was a historic right of way through the land. The charity insists there is no such right of way and refutes any accusations of “money grabbing”.

It says it has a duty to “maximise our assets” in order to fund its charitable aims. A spokeswoman said the charity had been “hit hard” during Covid, so new ways of generating income had to be explored.

“We have a duty of care towards our staff and animals, we have had historic issues with people letting dogs off leads and people going into areas with no public access, sometimes late at night and close to staff housing.”

Nick Clark, a director of Boudica, said no planning application has been submitted to Breckland Council yet, and that the firm was committed to engaging with the community when one is finally brought forward. He said Snetterton had been identified by the authority as a ‘key location’ on the ‘A11 tech corridor’, with capacity for further expansion of its already extensive manufacturing, logistics and engineering sectors.

“Our ambition is for the East Anglia Logistics Hub to become a specialised development with opportunities for warehousing, logistics and distribution. However the exact details of what will be developed is subject to further work and design, as well as planning permission from Breckland Council,” Mr Clark added.

“The council is supportive of the Hub as it forms a core part of its vision for progress – encouraging investment and stimulating economic growth across the district, as well as creating real, tangible benefits for the people in the area.”

Both the charity and Boudica said the details of any deal between them are private and confidential. Environmental issues would be looked at if a planning application was submitted by the developers.

The village was well established by the time of the Norman Conquest, with its population, land ownership and productive resources being detailed in the Domesday Book of 1086. In it, it was recorded as Snentretuna, derived from Old English, meaning “Snytra’s enclosure” or “Snytra’s Farm”.

But evidence suggests people have lived in the area for far longer. The earliest finds from the parish are prehistoric flint tools, which were recovered by a fieldwalking survey conducted in the 1990s and a series of Late Neolithic pits were found at Grange Farm.

Bronze Age, Saxon and Roman finds have all been unearthed in the area. At one point the community had two churches – All Saints’ and St Andrew’s. Only All Saints, built in the 13th century, is still standing.

A description of the village in 1854 described it as “55 straggling houses, 252 souls and 2,174 acres of land.” Almost 160 years later, the 2011 census recorded a parish population of 201 people in 74 houses.

The Second World War, brought massive changes to the area, transforming the quiet rural landscape forever. A 200-acre airbase was built on what is now the Snetterton Racetrack, it was used by the US Air Force as the base of the 96th Bomb Group. A motor racing circuit was first built in the 1950s using a section of the old runway.

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