Tuddenham St Martin plans deferred by council despite vote

East Suffolk Council's planning committee came together on Tuesday to discuss plans for the new homes in Tuddenham St Martin.

The plans have been met with strong objections from residents and the parish council, which has said the proposals are not "feasible" and do not follow local and national guidelines due to there being "no footpath access anywhere".

A bus and lorry passing each other along the route (Image: Richard Ward)

The councillors, of which there were nine, came together to discuss the plans and take a final vote on whether to approve the plans, which is what was originally recommended.

The vote, however, lead to five votes against the plans, and four in favour, which lead to the chair of the committee stating: "So that has failed."

Richard Ward, a resident, said of the meeting: "This is when the shenanigans began.

The road has no footpath access (Image: Richard Ward)

"Up until this point, I thought it was a fair process and they did a good job of discussing the facts.

"I was flabbergasted by what happened next.

"Those that voted against went on to explain their reasoning, and that, in my view, should have been the end of it.

A fire engine trying to get down the road (Image: Submitted)

"But the discussion continued, and councillor Debbie McCallum proposed to defer a decision that had already been made as far as I'm concerned."

The reason the application was deferred was so that the council could seek third-party advice on highways safety.

Following the deferral, councillor Colin Hedgley said: "Mr Chairman, can we not just keep voting until we get the right result?"

The route (Image: Richard Ward)

"We voted, that's it."

This was met with a response from the chair, who said: "You've got to refuse on a certain basis and people are not quite happy with what you said."

Mr Ward added: "Any straight-thinking person can see that this development does not meet requirements in terms of access.

"Getting in an independent consultant to review the safety of the connection to the village is a waste of council money."

A lorry on the road (Image: Richard Ward)