Broadland Country Park

Broadland Country Park is a flagship Green Infrastructure project, showcasing how the partnership has delivered more by working together. Located to the North-West of Norwich, just North of Horsford, it offers increased opportunity for people to access high quality green spaces by creating a new 140-acre country park which is surrounded by a much larger area of woodland. The project delivers:

• Walking and cycling routes,
• habitat restoration and enhancement schemes,
• public engagement events,
• car parking

The Greater Norwich Growth Board provided £719,000 which enabled Broadland District Council to purchase the land in 2019. Due to the GNGB’s initial investment, BDC were able to secure additional match funding from the Business Rates Pool, from British Cycling, and through S106 contributions from nearby developments.

The country park is already well visited with on average 1,000 visits per week. There is also a growing group of regular volunteers, many of whom live locally, who are giving their time to practical tasks at the park. During 2022 volunteer time supporting the country park was in the region of 3,000 hours.

This project represented a unique opportunity for the GNGB to provide a substantial improvement to Green Infrastructure Provision which supports the whole Greater Norwich Area, as securing locations for additional country parks has long been a priority. This project supports the partnership’s goal of developing a multifunctional network of greenspaces, green links, and blue infrastructure.

The GNGB continues to support Broadland Country Park, and in January 2022 agreed funding for the Horsford Crossing Project, which will improve access into the park for both cyclists and walkers.

Broadland District Council have recently been undertaking survey work with visitors and non-visitors alike on the future development of the park. At the time of writing, the results are being analysed, but there have been 273 responses, and responses show a high level of local usage, 83% of respondents rated their experience of Broadland Country Park as either excellent, very good or good.