Building giant Persimmon Homes is hoping to build a further 35 townhouses on unused land it still has to develop at Griffin Wharf on the west bank of the Orwell.
The site already has planning permission for homes – it was included in a masterplan for the site that was approved in 2005. At that time it was thought that this part of the development would include flats and a hotel, but during the last recession it became clear that was no longer viable.
Since then Persimmon has obtained permission to build more homes on other parts of the site – which was formerly the Ransomes and Rapier works that dominated that part of the Orwell until it closed in the late 1980s.
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In its new planning application submitted to Ipswich Council, it says there has now been an oversupply of flats in that part of the town and that it wants to build 35 three-storey, three-bedroomed town houses on the land similar to those it is building elsewhere on Griffin Wharf.
The houses would all be built for sale – in its planning application Persimmon points out that its original planning application in 2005 for the whole Griffin Wharf site was for 464 homes, it has already built 116 flats which were all designated as “affordable” but the original plan to continue building flats for the open market did not go ahead in 2011 because there was little demand for them.
The development would be accessed from Discovery Avenue behind Jamestown Avenue. It faces on to the railway track that leads to the West Bank.
The application points out that since the original permission was granted in 2005, the Ipswich Flood Protection Scheme has been completed to bring extra protection to that part of the town – and there has been an archeological report into the site.
For decades this was the heart of industry on the west bank of the river – from Griffin Wharf Ransomes and Rapier cranes, draglines, and railway turntables were exported around the world.
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This application should lead to the redevelopment of a piece of vacant land that has been waiting for a new use since the turn of the century.
This is the last large area waiting to be developed on Griffin Wharf itself – but there are still other parcels of land around the Waterfront looking for new uses in the future.
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