DEVELOPERS who want to build a new community on the edge of Ipswich were today confident that work could start late next year - despite continued opposition from planners.
DEVELOPERS who want to build a new community on the edge of Ipswich were today confident that work could start late next year - despite continued opposition from planners.
Babergh District Council this week repeated its objections to proposals to build a 1,000 home estate on the site of the former British Sugar plant between Ipswich and Sproughton, insisting that the land should be used for industrial development.
However developers JG Land said they had already lodged an appeal against the council because it took too long to make a decision on the development they have called Broadmeadow.
Today John Jowitt from JG Land said he was sure the development would eventually get the go-ahead because industrial development there would not be economic.
He said: “That is a very big site. Our proposal involves building homes, community facilities and some industrial units.
“That site is several times larger than Babergh's entire requirement for industrial land and the figures don't add up.
“A great deal of preparation and cleaning of the site is needed before anything can be built there and land for industrial use is not as valuable as residential land.
“Put bluntly, if the inspector accepts Babergh's argument that site will remain undeveloped for the foreseeable future. The redundant sugar beet factory will be there for at least the next 15 years.”
Mr Jowitt said he hoped the inquiry would take place during the spring and a decision would be announced later in the year, allowing preliminary work to start before the end of 2007.
Work on the site would probably take six years to complete, so it would not be finished until 2013 or 2014.
Richard Watson, Babergh's planning chief, said he was pleased councillors rejected the application for a mixed use development on the old British Sugar site.
He said: “Babergh has always said that if any developer could clearly prove that the location was uneconomic as an employment site, we would give the evidence serious consideration. To date, no evidence has been forthcoming.”
WEBLINK
www.broadmeadow.co.uk
www.babergh.gov.uk
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