A 66-bed care home on the former Jarrold sports ground off Heath Crescent, Hellesdon, is recommended for approval, with £24,187 for pitches. Vote on 14 October.
A 66-bedroom care home for older people is planned on the former Jarrold sports ground off Heath Crescent in Hellesdon, and council planning officers are recommending approval.
Broadland’s planning committee decides the application, 2026/0836, at 10am on Wednesday 14 October. It was called in by the ward councillor, Lacey Douglass, because of “the scale of the development and the significant public interest in this site” (committee report).
What is planned
The applicant is LNT Care Developments. The committee report says the company has built and runs about 275 care homes across the UK to standard designs. Its Broadlands Lodge home at Broadland Gate is the same 66-bed model, but on three storeys.
The Hellesdon scheme would:
- demolish one chalet bungalow to make the access
- build a two-storey, H-shaped home with 66 bedrooms
- provide 35 parking spaces and a covered cycle stand
- create about 19 full-time equivalent jobs in care, catering, cleaning and administration
The site covers 1.46 hectares. It holds the old clubhouse, a bowls green, two tennis courts and a former grass football pitch.
What happened to the sports ground
Jarrold set up the ground in the early 1950s for its staff and their families. The report says use fell away until the club was no longer viable. It was in the local press as closing in August 2016, and the Greater Norwich playing pitch strategy of 2022 lists the pitches as “lapsed”, meaning unused for five years or more.
Because the field has been out of use for over five years, Sport England was not a statutory consultee. It was asked anyway. It accepted that west Broadland has more pitches than it needs, but said many are poor quality.
So the approval would depend on a £24,187 payment, secured by a Section 106 agreement. The council’s sport team proposes spending it at Hellesdon High School, whose pitches are open to the public and are described in the strategy as overplayed. Ideas include changing rooms, goalposts, grass pitch work and better floodlights on the 3G pitch.
This is the second attempt to build here. An application for 40 homes on a larger site (2025/0962) was withdrawn. A separate application for eight bungalows on the land to the north, where the pavilion stands, is still being considered.
Parking, the main local worry
Norfolk’s parking guidance would suggest about 41 spaces for a home of this size: one per full-time member of staff, plus one visitor space per three beds. LNT first offered 30, based on its other homes. After the county council raised concerns, it went up to 35, and highways now raise no objection.
The report says the area “does not lend itself well to any overspill parking”, and that 35 spaces strikes the balance given the bus links nearby.
The council wrote to 66 households and received four letters. Two objected, citing the scale, traffic on a road “not suitable” for it, overlooking, and visibility at a right-angled access. Two neutral letters questioned whether 30 spaces would be enough and asked that the existing filter on Heath Crescent stay, so no rat run opens between Fifers Lane and Cromer Road.
Hellesdon Parish Council supports the scheme despite “some concerns” about parking. One parish councillor asked for their vote against to be recorded.
Other conditions
Approval would also depend on:
- a final drainage design agreed with the Lead Local Flood Authority, which objected in April and July for lack of an acceptable flood risk assessment and whose latest comments are still awaited
- no objection from Natural England after a habitats assessment, and the purchase of nutrient neutrality credits if needed
Anglian Water says the Whitlingham Trowse water recycling centre does not yet have capacity for the extra flows. It is in the company’s 2025 to 2030 investment plan, and Anglian Water wants a condition stopping anyone moving in until capacity is confirmed.
What it means for you
If you live around Heath Crescent or Prince Andrew’s Road, this is the decision that settles what replaces the old ground. The meeting is public, and the committee page explains how to register to speak.
For local football, the money is modest but specific: if the home goes ahead, the £24,187 is earmarked for the community pitches at Hellesdon High School.
The same committee will consider Zatu’s planned headquarters at Taverham, which officers recommend refusing. Other decisions are on our Broadland planning news page.
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