He was the forum's guest speaker at its September breakfast meeting in Legends Coffee Shop, where he also spoke about the town council's work and what it could and could not do for local business.

Mr Bishop said Breckland Council proposed only limited expansion in Swaffham until the mid-2020s. The town council wanted more than this and was proposing 600 additional houses for the town and 1,200 jobs, many of which could be based behind the EcoTech site.

"Thirty-three sites had been proposed by landowners for development, but if they were all built on, the town would quadruple in size. That's not going to happen," he said.

"Only ten to 15 per cent of those sites are appropriate for development."

Mr Bishop explained the town council had four themes, transport, community social, environment and economy, to its planning for the future of Swaffham and referred to the Town Group, which had been leading this process, and the Iceni Partnership, which was also involved.

Lynn News columnist, Turbine, was quoted as having mentioned the "power of well being". The town clerk said: "This will be relevant to Swaffham as we are what is known as a quality council. We had to work hard to get that status and it will allow us to deliver services currently only offered by other authorities."

As an example he cited social housing, currently offered by Breckland Council. He pointed out that having the power to offer a service also meant they would have to raise the money to pay for it through additional council tax.

On business rates, he explained that money went straight to central Government and both Breckland and the town council could do no more than apply for money for particular projects.

Dealing with the public toilets, now managed by the town council, had proved a steep learning curve, he said.

A new contract, replacing the current temporary one, was being negotiated and would have new conditions about opening hours and other issues that had come to light since taking control.

A land agent had been appointed to handle the sale of the allotment land. Although not a good time economically, it was planned that the sale would generate a good pot of "match funding" money that could be used to top up grants from other bodies and would be spent on development and services, he said.