Whole Settlement Strategy
HOLT
March 2003
NORTH
NORFOLK
DISTRICT COUNCIL
Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
INTRODUCTION
This strategy is the product of an extensive public participation exercise carried out in
2001(details of this are given at the back of this report (Annex 1)). The Strategy
outlines:
The roles that the town fulfills - including the perceptions of the nature of the town and
its various functions and services.
The issues that need to be addressed - relating to the physical environment, the
community and social life of the town and its economy.
Broad aims for the future development of the town - focussed on addressing land-use
issues.
Objectives that will help to achieve those aims - established from the consideration of
various options.
North Norfolk District Council has adopted the Strategy as Council Policy to guide the
future development of Holt. It will be followed-up by detailed policies and proposals in the
review of the North Norfolk Local Plan (planning land use and development up to 2011).
SUMMARY
Holt is a small country town providing a good range of services and facilities to its relatively small
catchment population. The town is also a major attraction in the District by virtue of its interesting mix
of specialist shops, its high quality environment and proximity to visitor attractions and beautiful
countryside.
The town’s appeal brings with it pressure
from visitors, particularly parking, and it also
contributes to the high house prices in the
area - reducing the scope for affordable
housing.
Holt supports a good range of jobs and is
quite well placed to attract further business
investment. Whilst there have been
obstacles to the development of existing
vacant land on the industrial estate there is
scope to extend that area to provide further
opportunity for employment development in
Holt.
The Strategy aims to protect the
environmental assets of the town whilst
exploiting the opportunities afforded by its
location to foster a balanced community. The
objectives seek to identify the scope for
development that will meet the needs of the
town in harmony with its existing character.
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Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
ROLES
Environment
Holt is a compact town in an area of beautiful
countryside. The town’s clean, attractive environment
contributes to the quality of life of its residents and
attracts visitors. It has an historic core with a wealth of
important buildings. The area around Holt contains
areas of beautiful landscape and plays host to important
wildlife habitats, some of which have international
significance.
Housing
Holt is a desirable town to live in. Being such a small town
the supply of houses is limited, but there is a broad range
of house types and residential environments, from
historic terraced cottages in the town centre to modern
estate dwellings on the periphery. The town is an
extremely popular location for retirement and for
second-home ownership.
Employment
Holt has a reasonably good range of employment
opportunities for a town of its size. Whilst many jobs are
in the retail sector, the town also has a firm industrial
base. Its central location in North Norfolk and its good
accessibility by road make it a valuable employment
centre for a wide hinterland, including the nearby town of
Sheringham. There are as many jobs available in the area
as people of working age.
Gresham’s school is a significant employer and the
presence of the school in the town generates wealth in a
variety of ways.
Community Facilities
Holt generally has an excellent range of sporting, leisure
and educational facilities, clubs etc, supported by a lively
community, although recreational facilities for children
and teenagers are limited. Kelling Hospital although
outside the town is an important healthcare facility (and
employer) for Holt and surrounding areas and is the
intended location of the Holt Medical Practice.
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Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
Shopping
Shopping is a major function of Holt, both in meeting the
needs of the local catchment and as an attraction to
visitors from far and wide. For such a small country town it
has an amazing array of shops, galleries, cafes, pubs,
banks etc. It is, however, not so much a market town but
rather a specialist shopping destination.
Tourism
Holt is a year-round destination for tourists and daytrippers. The town attracts people in its own right as well
as being a centre for tourists visiting the North Norfolk
Coast and other attractions in the area. Its main appeal is
its high-quality shopping and food and drink outlets, and
of course the Christmas lights. Gresham’s school’s
cultural facilities also contribute to the town’s tourism
offer. The general environment of the town and
surrounding area are an obvious tourist asset.
Tourism is thus a significant source of income and
employment for the town.
Transport
Being situated right on the A148, Holt is a very accessible
town by road and is served by convenient peak-time bus
services. The bypass takes through-traffic away from the
town centre, although large numbers of cars enter the
town centre to park.
There are many opportunities for walking and cycling in
the area for recreational purposes, although there are
limitations on these as modes of transport.
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Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
ISSUES
Environment
Some new housing developments and shop-fronts have
been poorly designed.
The landscape is an important asset.
Green spaces within and around the town are important
to the quality of life and should be protected.
Threatened wildlife habitats should be safeguarded and
new habitats created. Heathland restoration is of
particular importance in the vicinity of Holt Country
Park.
Particular care should be taken to ensure that
development does not detrimentally affect wildlife
habitats, especially the Holt Lowes (e.g. through water
abstraction and run off).
Countryside access should be maintained and managed
at Holt Country Park, Spout Hills, Kelling/Salthouse
Heaths, Holt Lowes and the Coastal Marshes.
Housing
The price of all types of ‘market’ housing in the town has
risen beyond the means of most local people. There is
thus a dire need for ‘affordable’ housing in Holt and its
hinterland, especially ‘social-rented’ housing.
Affordable housing has not been integrated with general
housing, thus creating a ‘divided’ community.
There is no scope for major new housing development.
Employment
Business expansion at the Hempstead Road industrial
estate is constrained by land ownership issues.
Wages (particularly in the retail, care and tourism
sectors) cannot keep pace with house price inflation.
Thus, many employees in businesses in the town come
from elsewhere.
The principal access to the Hempstead Road industrial
estate passes through a residential area, causing
conflicts.
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Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
Community Facilities
Young people need to go to other areas for evening entertainment and
leisure activities. A particular issue is the lack of a place for skateboarding.
Many parents work long hours or commute long distances and there is a
need for before/after-school clubs.
With the Holt Medical Practice moving to the Kelling Hospital site on the
outskirts of town, a good-quality, convenient public transport service or a
‘satellite’ surgery in the town will be needed.
Many areas of the town are poorly accessible to disabled people.
Protect existing sports pitches and community facilities.
Shopping
There is concern about the threat of out-of-centre shops damaging towncentre trade.
An important characteristic of retailing in the town is the small, individual
nature of most of the shops.
Holt is somewhat a victim of its own success, and the town centre has
difficulty coping with the number of shoppers it attracts, particularly with
respect to parking.
Residents go to other towns for markets; there is a desire for Holt to have
a farmers’ market.
There is a lack of co-ordination between commercial and municipal
interests to ensure that the town centre functions effectively as a whole.
Tourism
The main issues concern the capacity of the car parking in the town to
accommodate visitors’ cars.
Visitor accommodation in the town is limited but also poorly marketed
and promoted.
Holt attracts visitors all year round, not just seasonally, and a tourist
information centre should thus operate all year.
Transport
Traffic and delivery vehicles create a problem for pedestrians, especially
those with disabilities, in parts of the town centre, particularly Bull Street
and Shirehall Plain.
The bypass divides the town into two distinct areas: it isolates the
residential areas to the south from the town centre and discourages the
social integration of the town as a whole.
There is a lack of safe cycleways and cycle parking.
At peak times there is an acute parking problem in the town and
throughout the year there is a high demand for spaces in the centre of
town.
Cars often circle around the town centre in search of parking spaces,
causing congestion and conflicts with pedestrians.
There may be potential for a future orbital rail link joining Holt with the
Bittern Line and Fakenham and beyond.
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Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
AIMS
Environment
To conserve the character of the town and
ensure that new development reflects
distinctive local qualities.
To protect, maintain and restore wildlife
habitats and conserve and enhance the
natural beauty of the area.
Housing
To provide well-planned, socially-inclusive
housing developments that meet local
housing needs (particularly for those on low
incomes).
Employment
To exploit Holt’s location and accessibility by
facilitating the growth of its role as an
employment centre, providing jobs for
people within the town and a wide catchment
area.
Community Facilities
To maintain the range and quality of
community and recreational facilities in the
town, which meet the general everyday
needs of its catchment.
Shopping
To maintain a healthy and diverse town centre
to satisfy local needs and improve its capacity
to function as a visitor attraction.
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Tourism
To protect the tourism assets that the town
and its hinterland possess: e.g. the highquality environment, the retail offer, the
access to informal outdoor recreation, the
visitor attractions and the distinctive
character of the town.
To ensure that there are adequate facilities,
infrastructure and car-parking to cater for
peak visitor demand.
Transport
To ensure that the town is accessible for all
residents, employees and visitors by public
transport, cycling and on foot as well as by
car.
To ensure that the town centre is safe and
accessible for pedestrians.
To ensure that there is sufficient car parking
capacity to cater for the needs of the town
centre and that it is conveniently located and
has good pedestrian links to the centre.
Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
OBJECTIVES
Environment
Protect important wildlife habitats, seek the restoration
of heathland in the vicinity of Holt Lowes, and recognise
the contribution of all semi-natural habitats to
biodiversity.
Continue to protect the landscape setting of the town,
keeping the town compact and ensuring that new
development on the edge of the town is well landscaped.
Improve the appearance of the town-centre streets and
spaces, particularly around Shirehall Plain and Bull Street.
Adopt strict standards of design for shop-fronts to
maintain the historic character of the town centre.
Housing
Ensure that housing developments on previouslydeveloped land (’brownfield’ sites) are sympathetic in
scale and character with the surrounding development
whilst maximising the use of the land.
Identify small-scale extensions to the town - with no
detrimental impact on landscape or ecology - for the
development of the type of housing that will make a
significant contribution to meeting the need for
affordable housing, particularly ‘starter homes’.
Ensure that new housing development has good
pedestrian and cycle routes to local shops and services.
Ensure that ‘affordable’ housing is provided on small sites
as well as larger ones.
Employment
Identify sites with a direct access onto the bypass to
accommodate industrial/warehousing development to
satisfy the employment needs of residents of the Holt
and Sheringham areas.
Community Facilities
Protect recreational land and facilities and ensure
adequate replacement where development is deemed
necessary.
Ensure that adequate public play space and facilities are
available to meet the needs of children and teenagers in
the town.
Support the development, improvement and expansion
of community facilities in the town, particularly those that
meet the needs of young people and the elderly.
Strongly encourage the provision of community transport
to the medical centre once it moves to the Kelling
Hospital site.
Shopping
Do not permit an out-of-centre supermarket
development.
Seek improvements in the attractiveness and accessibility
of the town centre.
Retain the distinctive characteristics of the small shop
units in the centre of town.
Tourism
Ensure that all new visitor attractions and
accommodation have adequate infrastructure and
parking.
Encourage the provision of facilities that cater for non carborne visitors.
Transport
Investigate the opportunity for traffic management
measures and a pedestrian priority scheme based around
Shirehall Plain and Bull Street.
Ensure that all new visitor attractions, accommodation,
shops and other facilities attracting large numbers of
people are accessible to cyclists and pedestrians and
make a contribution to the provision of adequate car
parking.
Make pedestrian and cycle access between existing
residential areas and the town centre safe and attractive
and ensure that all new residential development has safe
and convenient pedestrian and cycle routes to the town
centre.
Car Parking
Devise a solution to the car-parking problem in the town
by either:
identifying a suitable site for a new car park in a
convenient location with good pedestrian access
to the town centre;
identifying a site for a temporary ‘overflow’ car
park for use at peak times;
identify a site in the vicinity of Kelling Hospital and
the North Norfolk Railway for a park-and-ride
facility; or
managing the existing car parks so as to maximise
their use and ensure that visitors, shoppers,
employees, residents etc. are parked in the most
appropriate locations.
Ensure that additional car parking is sensitively sited and
designed.
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Holt Whole Settlement Strategy
A n n e x 1 : P u b l i c Pa r t i c i p a t i o n P r o c e s s
Stakeholder Workshop
More than fifty people representing a wide range of interests (commercial businesses, community
organisations, special interest groups, sporting, religious and educational interests and members of
town, parish and District Councils) were involved in a workshop on 22 October 2001 at the Feathers
Hotel.
Interactive Exhibition
The ideas generated at the stakeholder workshop were developed into displays that were exhibited
at the Community Centre on Saturday 24 November 2001. Approximately 150 people attended this
exhibition giving feedback on the issues and prioritising the options put forward.
Targetted Session
To ensure that young people’s views were represented, a workshop session was held on the 18
December at Sheringham High School for Holt residents. Approximately twenty students from year
seven through to the sixth form took part.
For further information please contact:
Forward Planning Manager, North Norfolk District Council,
PO Box 5, Council Offices, Holt Road, Cromer,
Norfolk. NR27 9DZ
Telephone : 01263 516133
e-mail - gary.alexander@north-norfolk.gov.uk
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