Norwich City Council approves home for sinking Argyle Street site

The 14 affordable properties will be built in Argyle Street, off King Street, Norwich

New houses will be built on a site occupied by squatters in the 1970s and 1980s after previous properties were demolished due to subsidence.

Norwich City Council approved its own plans to build 14 affordable properties in Argyle Street, off King Street.

A community of squatters occupied the site from the late 1970s but were forcibly removed by police in 1985.

The council said it believed a solution had been found to get around the area's subsidence issues.

After the squatters were evicted, the original homes were torn down and new properties were built.

Many of the properties only lasted 30 years before being knocked down due large internal cracks in them.

According to documents that went before a planning committee, surveys established chalk tunnels, dug for mining, run under the site.

To address the ground issues, deep piled foundations for the buildings' walls and floors would be taken into the chalk bedrock and past any tunnels and unstable material.

Nine people wrote to the authority to object to the scheme, raising concerns that the site was too dense, it could be a haven for wildlife instead and whether the land was suitable for building on.

Councillors unanimously approved the plans.