Plea to speak out over bungalow bid - or lose historic ‘green lung’ forever

Michael Boon next to the River Yare and port area seen from Gorleston.Picture: James Bass (Image: Archant Norfolk © 2015)

Historian Michael Boon has added his voice to a chorus of concern over a bid to build on a former manor house garden in Gorleston.

Mr Boon and his wife Pamela have lived in their house on Addison Road for over 40 years and their garden backs on to Koolunga House - a landmark building in High Road.

A proposal for a three-bedroom bungalow and double garage has met has with opposition, with one person tagging as “vandalism” any attempt to demolish part of the Georgian wall close to “a green lung.”

He said: “We urge all of those people, my neighbours and others in Gorleston who have expressed concern to us regarding this development to look at the details of the planning application and if they share our concerns, to write to the council expressing their views before the closing consultation date of March 29.

A planning application has been submitted for a new home in the grounds of the Georgian manor Koolunga House Picture: Google maps (Image: Google Maps)

“Once mature trees, have gone they cannot be replaced overnight and the associated green environment declines with it.

“Every urban settlement needs a balance of small conserved green environmental areas within the areas where people need to live.

Gorleston is no different from other settlements in this respect.”

Mr Boon said the gardens had been laid out by Commander John Garnham nearly 200 years ago.

A new access will be made in the wall of Koolunga House in Gorleston if planners allow a scheme for a single storey home to be built at the plot which was sold at auction in 2017 Picture: Google Maps (Image: Google Maps)

He said: “The current planning application to build on the formal gardens of the house is but the latest attempt to threaten the small established woodland area in Gorleston.

“The whole site of Koolunga House and formal gardens laid out behind its contemporary wall has been a single entity until just under five years ago when the southern gardens of the house, which are subject to the planning application were sold speculatively at auction.

“Is very important that the whole Koolunga site remains as it is now, a private open space in a designated conservation area with mature trees.

“The current planning application seeks to divide a small urban woodland from the house and main property by a change of use which will involve the construction of a large bungalow, the removal of some mature trees together with the building of a controversial access by demolishing part of an historic wall.

To comment on the application click here.