LAND will have to be identified for a new primary school if an independent inspector agrees to proposals for nearly 1,800 extra homes in the Felixstowe area.

Work is set to start in the new year on preparing an area action plan for the resort and nearby villages and its key task will be to agree land uses for the next 15-plus years.

As well as identifying land for the new homes, a site will have to be set aside for a school able to cater for 210 pupils.

It will probably be built in Walton or the Trimley villages, as this where most of the new housing is expected.

Education chiefs say the number of children at school in the Felixstowe area is set to grow even without further homes being built, and the extra housing would take pupil numbers way past the current capacity.

“Whilst some of these children arising could be accommodated in existing schools, there is a reasonable expectation that a new 210 places primary school (requiring a site of 2.5 hectares/six acres) would need to be funded by developers,” said a county council statement.

The county was expecting 1,440 new homes to be allocated in the Felixstowe area and says this would generate 360 primary school age pupils. The figure has since risen to 1,760 homes – and could go even higher – which would mean even more students.

Trimley St Martin and Trimley St Mary primary schools, Causton Junior and Maidstone Infants, have a combined capacity of 1,155 places, and with a growing school roll already, there would be a shortfall by the time new homes were built.

The county council would calculate the exact student figures and the costs of extra education provision once the housing numbers are finally decided.

Legal agreements would be imposed on planning permission to raise the cash from housing companies to pay for the multi-million pound new school.

Around 1,800 homes could be expected to generate a dividend of �6.8m.

Inspector Mike Moore is currently holding a public inquiry into the housing allocation, part of Suffolk Coastal’s proposed Local Development Framework, the blueprint for the future of the district.