3.1.1. Barrow is a large village with a population of 1,887 (2019 mid-year estimate), one of the highest settlement populations outside of the towns. It is just under 10 kilometres from Bury St Edmunds. Barrow is designated as a key service centre in recognition of the important role it plays in serving the residents of the village and those who live in the surrounding rural area. The village provides a number of key services and facilities including convenience food shops, a school and early years provision, post office, public houses and a GP surgery.

3.1.2. The parish council have embarked on the process of preparing a neighbourhood plan. The neighbourhood plan area was designated by West Suffolk Council on 26 June

Constraints and opportunities

• Bus services are less frequent than hourly, or operate during limited times.
• The heavy soils in and around Barrow make the area susceptible to surface water flooding, demonstrated by the number of ponds around the village. This will need to be considered when future sites are developed but is an obstacle that can be overcome.
• Consideration needs to be given to the impact on views from the west of the settlement around Denham Castle.
• Additional or expanded services and facilities may be required depending on the scale of development proposed.
• There are no national or habitat designations in close proximity to the village and the village does not have a conservation area.
• The small settlements of Denham and Burthorpe should be protected from coalescence with Barrow.
• Barrow is fundamentally constrained to the north from the setting of the adjacent scheduled ancient monument (SAM).
• A buffer is required to protect the county wildlife site to the south of Barrow, although there may be potential to extend the settlement in this direction providing suitable mitigation can be achieved and a defensible boundary to further development formed.
• The county historic environment record (HER) records prehistoric archaeological sites to the south of the village, which lies on relatively high ground. To the north, there is a cluster of medieval sites, and those of Roman and medieval date are recorded around The Green. 

Preferred allocations

3.1.3. Two new sites are proposed as preferred sites for residential development in Barrow providing an indicative capacity of 170 dwellings. The level of development proposed in Barrow is influenced by the overall housing requirement and the settlement strategy. This determines the distribution of development across the district as well as the existing environmental and physical constraints and the overall capacity for growth in the settlement. Further information on how housing numbers have been derived can be seen in part one of the local plan.

3.1.4. Further information on alternative site options considered but not taken forward can be seen in the table of omission sites in appendix B.

3.1.5. An existing preferred non-strategic employment site, as well as an employment area have been identified for Barrow. Further details can be seen in chapter 7 employment. Each site is identified on the policies map.

3.1.6. Information on infrastructure can be seen in the draft infrastructure delivery plan (IDP) (2022) which sets out baseline data for each settlement.

Barrow settlement constraints map

Barrow preferred allocations map