Did you know?
Each year there are more than 5 million visitors to Great Yarmouth and just under 4 million to the Waveney district, bringing in almost £700 million to the local economy.
A Guidance Note for Partners, Landowners, Developers and their Agents
The Design Panel was established in 2008 by the Board of 1st East (the Urban Regeneration Company for Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth). Its purpose is to promote the highest possible standards for developments within the URC intervention areas, consistent with the stated ambition of the Board to help make both towns 'Great Places to Live, Work and Visit'.
In making its recommendations the Panel will consider Design in its widest context - in terms of each project's relationship to its neighbourhood, its connectivity, its environmental and sustainable characteristics, its aesthetic durability, the strategic objectives set by 1st East and the local Councils, and (in some ways most important) its 'sense of place'.
Development proposals may be referred to the Panel by the Executive of 1st East or by the local Councils. In most cases these will be of sufficient scale to be considered of strategic significance, but some quite small projects may also have a resonance beyond their intrinsic size, and need to be reviewed for that reason.
The Panel has no statutory function in the planning process but its recommendations have influence with the 1st East Board (to which it reports) and with the Planning Departments of the local Councils, with which it maintains close and regular communication. Potential developers are strongly encouraged to engage early with the Panel, as well as taking advantage of the pre-application services of the local Planning Departments.
