Controversial proposals to build 94 council homes next to Ravenswood school have led to a 950-signature petition being handed in to Ipswich council.

The petition was accepted today as the council’s scrutiny committee will tomorrow prepare to consider whether all the consultation was in order before drawing up the proposals.

It could be decided to refer the consultation process back to planners – leading to a further delay in the formal application being discussed by the council.

Originally the borough had talked about building 77 homes on the land – 26 affordable, but earlier this year the figure was increased to 94 – and it proposed they should all be council homes, mainly of one or two-bedroomed properties.

Residents of the Ravenswood estate felt that having a concentration of council homes in one part of the development would damage the “mixed” housing ethos.

Handing in the petition to local councillor Danny Maguire yesterday, Bryan Patterson said: “People who live on Ravenswood are happy with the 75/25 mix we have there.

“In 2011 this was changed to 65/35 which would be fine in a mixed development – but to build a large number of council homes would change the balance.”

The council has made one concession to the concerns – 24 of the homes are now going to be built for “mixed tenure”. They will be partly owned by their occupiers, with the balance being paid to the council as rent.

However residents on the estate have called for the development to be split 34 council homes, 30 mixed tenure homes, and 30 homes for sale.

Borough housing spokesman John Mowles said it would be for the council’s planning committee to decide whether to accept the executive’s current proposals when it considered the planning application later this autumn.

Today’s committee could delay the process – but he was hopeful that a final decision could be taken before the end of the year.