MORE than 2,800 new homes are set to be built in Felixstowe and the Trimley villages, it was revealed today.The housing - which would be built over the next 15 years - should give the resort the boost it needs, staving off fears it will stagnate and its population fall.
MORE than 2,800 new homes are set to be built in Felixstowe and the Trimley villages, it was revealed today.
The housing - which would be built over the next 15 years - should give the resort the boost it needs, staving off fears it will stagnate and its population fall.
Consultants warned in the masterplan for the town's future that it needed 1,700 homes just to stand still because of falling birth rates, young people leaving, and smaller households.
They said 3,000 new homes would be needed to give it a bright future, and now Suffolk Coastal council is set to grasp the nettle and start planning positively to make sure its decline is reversed.
Many of the new homes will be needed for portworkers with expansion of the container terminal set to create 1,500 new jobs, but also affordable homes to encourage youngsters to stay in the area, and homes for lower-paid workers needed to do vital jobs.
Suffolk Coastal's core housing strategy - set to be approved by councillors next Wednesday - says 10,200 new homes need to be built in the district by 2021.
It is suggested 3,200 of these will be built on the edge of Ipswich - including Kesgrave, Nacton, Martlesham, Purdis Farm, Rushmere St Andrew - and 2,300 in market towns.
Some 2,830 would be built in Felixstowe and the Trimleys. Of these 140 already have permission, about 500 could be built on land in the town, but new sites will have to be found for 2,120.
As yet, Suffolk Coastal is not suggesting where the homes might be built. It expects to publish before the end of the year a land options report containing all the sites so far suggested by landowners, farmers, developers and parish councils, and residents will be allowed to have their say.
Trinity College, Cambridge, has put forward a vision for the development of the Trimleys showing how 1,300 to 1,500 homes could be built on farmland.
Trimley St Martin Parish Council vice chairman John Barker said the recommendations in the core housing strategy “would drastically change the character of the village of Trimley St Martin and its surrounding countryside, which include an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”.
“The parish council will be discussing at the earliest opportunity, the steps it now need to take to protect the village and its surrounding countryside, in light of these proposals,” he said.
WEBLINK: www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk
www.trimley-st.martin.org.uk
Where do you think the new homes should be built? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk
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