Board game retailer Zatu wants a 16m warehouse and HQ off Fir Covert Road, Taverham. Officers say refuse over 24/7 hours and scale. Councillors decide 14 Oct.
Broadland’s planning officers are recommending refusal of a new headquarters for Zatu, the online board games retailer, on farmland off Fir Covert Road in Taverham.
The council’s planning committee will decide the outline application at 10am on Wednesday 14 October. The officers’ report gives four reasons to refuse. The site is outside Taverham’s settlement limit, the buildings would harm the look of the area, the firm wants to run the site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it has dropped a promised footpath and cycle route.
What Zatu wants to build
Zatu is based in Bowthorpe and sells board and computer games to more than 70 countries, according to the committee report. It says it needs a purpose-built headquarters because the business keeps growing, and the council’s economic development officer says its existing warehouse is full.
The site is a 5.08 hectare arable field, shaped like an arrowhead, just south-west of the Northway roundabout where it meets Fir Covert Road. The application is in outline, so only the access is up for approval now. The applicant’s illustrative scheme shows:
- a three-storey office, 77m by 30m and 14.5m high
- a warehouse, 120m by 45m and 16m high
- 28 start-up units for other businesses: 24 at 12m by 12m, and four smaller ones
- around 300 parking spaces, according to one objector’s reading of the masterplan
The report says Zatu expects about 60 full-time equivalent staff at first, rising to 150 as the business grows. No estimate is given for jobs in the start-up units.
The access would be about 130m from the Northway roundabout. Opposite the site, outline permission already exists for up to 1,530 homes at what is now called Marriott’s Park, under application 20220455 (committee report, application 2024/2621/O).
Why officers say no
The report sets out four reasons for refusal:
- Principle. The site is outside Taverham’s settlement limit. Zatu’s site study has not shown an “evidenced unmet need” for the whole scheme, which the 2026 national policy requires for business development in the countryside.
- Scale and appearance. Buildings of this size would be “highly visible features” and cause “a considerable level of harm” to the character of the area, even with landscaping.
- Neighbours. The firm wants no limits on deliveries, collections or opening hours, so vehicles “have the potential to visit and leave the site at any time”.
- Getting there without a car. No off-site footpath or cycle links are now proposed.
The last two reasons follow the applicant’s own late changes. In the final round of consultation, Zatu said that to make the project financially viable it wanted to run the site 24/7 and to remove the footpath improvements along Fir Covert Road.
The report also weighs the benefits. It says new employment should get “substantial weight”, and that Taverham’s neighbourhood plan supports new jobs in principle. But it concludes that the harms “substantially outweigh” them.
The traffic question
Traffic is what most objectors raised, but it is not one of the reasons for refusal.
Norfolk County Council, as highway authority, objected to the access through several rounds of consultation. It withdrew that objection after Zatu modelled queues on Fir Covert Road up to 2038, including all committed development, and commissioned a road safety audit. The county then objected again when the footpath and cycle track were dropped.
Taverham Parish Council first raised no objection, wanting local jobs. It now objects. It says that without the Norwich Western Link, local roads cannot cope, and it “strongly” opposes 24/7 operation.
Cllr S Clancy, the district member for Taverham South and county councillor for Taverham, objected each time. He told the council that traffic on Fir Covert Road backs up to the Northway roundabout at peak times. He also asked officers to help Zatu find other premises in Broadland.
Four other parties objected to the first version: two businesses and two households. Later rounds drew one objection each.
What it means for you
If you live on or use Fir Covert Road, this is the decision that settles whether a large warehouse and office goes in beside the Northway junction. You can watch the meeting or register to speak through the committee page.
Councillors can go against an officer recommendation. If they refuse, Zatu could appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
The same agenda carries a 66-bed care home on the former Jarrold sports ground in Hellesdon. Our Broadland planning news page tracks other decisions, and the roadworks page covers the Northway night closures between Fakenham Road and Cromer Road this week.
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