Norfolk residents push to shield more green space from housing

Residents in King's Lynn, Norfolk, are asking local officials to extend protected status to additional green space after a 30-year campaign succeeded in preserving a nearby park from development.

Seven acres of land known as Harding's Pits, alongside the River Great Ouse, was recently granted village green status by the county council. The Harding's Pits Community Association worked for three decades to keep the area as leisure space.

Now the group wants the same protection applied to the eastern side of the site, which the King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council has earmarked for up to 50 houses in its local plan. The council has been approached for comment.

Independent councillor Alexandra Kemp said she has asked the authority to amend the plan. She wants the housing allocation removed and the eastern land designated as a village green, with community sports facilities, more trees and wildlife habitat added instead. Kemp warned that development along Hardings Way would increase traffic and harm the area's peace, safety and wildlife.

The government has set the local council a target of building more than 10,000 new homes by 2040. Harding's Pits, originally a 19th-century clay pit later used as landfill, became a public space in the early 1960s. It is now used for dog walking and as pedestrian access to the town centre.