Work is progressing rapidly on the next stage of a 560-home edge-of-town estate, which will eventually form part of a 2,000-property garden suburb.

Some occupiers have already moved into Trelawny Place off the Walton bypass Candlet Road at Felixstowe.

While developers Persimmon are busy putting the finishing touches to the initial stage of the project, more construction teams are working behind the entrance area on the next 200 houses.

These are being built in open countryside close to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty between the rear of the Abbey Grove and Grove woodlands and Gulpher Road.

It is not known when phase two - expected to be the remaining 200 homes in the plan - will start.

The development also has land set aside for a care home in Gulpher Road - plans for this are currently with East Suffolk Council - and a new primary school, though that is not expected for some years yet and the existing equestrian use of the land has been allowed to continue.

The housing site was previously used as meadows for horses and to house a number of small businesses, including a boat builder and a sign-making company.

Housebuilder Persimmon says the development "will bring much-needed new homes and an economic boost to the area, laying the foundations for a thriving new community to the north of the town".

The first homes close to a new traffic light junction at the entrance to the development are now finished with some sold and a show-house also open.

Candlet Road has been widened to accommodate the right-turn lane into the estate, with new pedestrian crossings and a 40mph speed limit brought in. A new cycleway/footpath has been built from the estate to the doctors' surgery at the top of Beatrice Avenue, and a footpath link on the Walton side.

The development's name commemorates Ian Trelawny, who with Gordon Parker developed the ailing Port of Felixstowe in the 1950s into a major trade powerhouse and container port.

Phase one of the project will see 255 two-, three-, four- and five-bed homes built with 85 of them affordable homes.

Talks are under way between the district council and landowners in the area to assemble the site for the garden neighbourhood - stretching from Eastward Ho to the A14 dock spur roundabout and set to include a £25million state-of-the-art leisure centre - and draw up a masterplan.