Ipswich: Homes set for former fire HQ site in London Road
A BID by housebuilder Hopkins Homes to build 59 homes on the site of the former county fire headquarters has won the backing of planning officials.
They are recommending that the borough’s planning and development committee overlooks the fact that the developer plans to build build fewer than required affordable homes at on the site off Colchester Road.
The application is due to be discussed at next week’s meeting of the committee at the borough’s Grafton House headquarters.
The site was earmarked for housing after local residents fought a bitter battle to prevent a new supermarket for Marks and Spencer being built on the site.
The borough decided it could only be used for housing. Borough policy says that 35 per cent of the homes on the site should be affordable – built for rent or shared equity – but Hopkins Homes is proposing that only 15, just over 25pc, should be affordable homes.
A report for the committee says this is not unreasonable given the nature of the site.
The fire headquarters and station at the site finally closed last year when the control room closed and was merged with that in Cambridgeshire and a new fire station opened on the on Ransomes Europark.
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Should the homes be built on the site? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail starletters@archant.co.uk
