VILLAGERS today fear they could face a fresh battle over the possibility of a new access road to Britain's biggest port.When plans for the future of the Felixstowe peninsula were last reviewed, residents had to fight to get riverside fields protected to prevent them being used for a new dual carriageway to Trinity Terminal.

By Richard Cornwell

VILLAGERS today fear they could face a fresh battle over the possibility of a new access road to Britain's biggest port.

When plans for the future of the Felixstowe peninsula were last reviewed, residents had to fight to get riverside fields protected to prevent them being used for a new dual carriageway to Trinity Terminal.

Suggestions were for a road from the roundabout off the interchange link road in High Road, Trimley St Martin, going straight across the fields and marshes to the port, a new route for thousands of lorries daily.

Community leaders were successful in ensuring a policy was put in place to protect the area - preventing a third access road and new dock gate being built.

But parish and district councillor Mary Dixon said astonishingly the policy was only one of a handful from the current plan which had been left out of the new draft plan for the future of the area.

And she said she had been shocked to hear one senior councillor saying a new access road would be needed for the port.

Mrs Dixon said: “We have got to have that policy in place - it is so important for both the villages.

“If there was a third access road there, Trimley St Mary would be surrounded by the A14, the railway and the new road.

“At least at the moment we have one side where we have got nothing.

“It really shook me to hear a senior councillor saying there would have to be another road to the dock.

“I have spoken to planning officers at Suffolk Coastal and hopefully this policy will be put back in to the plan to provide the protection we need for the village.”

Councillor Bryan Frost said it was essential the protection was there, but doubted whether anyone would want to fork out the £10 million for a bridge or tunnel for a new road to cross the Felixstowe-Ipswich railway line when it is dualled.

Suffolk Coastal is currently drawing up new development plans for the district. Consultation is taking place on the Local Development Framework, the first stage in this process, to determine policies.

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