Plea for patience in homes debate

CAMPAIGNERS are urging community leaders to take their time over agreeing 1,400 new homes for the Felixstowe area - and make sure they get it right.

Suffolk Coastal's cabinet meets on Tuesday to finalise proposals for housing for the next 15 years and is set to agree a 30 per cent cut in homes on the original figures.

Some campaigners though still feel 1,400 for Felixstowe and the Trimleys is too many, and forecast of a 4,000-plus population increase for the peninsula will mean a huge traffic increase when coupled with one million extra lorries a year at the port.

STAG - Save Trimley Against Growth - said it was “false and dangerous” for councillors to decide now.

Spokeswoman Barbara Shout said: “There is no urgency - the council has all the time in the world to get it right.

“We are in the depths of a recession and no prudent developer will risk building large housing estates anywhere in Britain for many years to come.”

With continuing concern that the Trimley villages would lose their separation from Walton/Felixstowe when new homes are built and see their identity eroded, STAG wants further public consultation because the housing figures have changed so much.

It says the recommendations now being made to cabinet “bear absolutely no relation to the proposals which stakeholders were asked to consult on earlier this year”.

A Suffolk Coastal report says: “Given the uncertainties over employment growth and infrastructure provision it might be more practical at this point in time to manage growth.

“The environmental setting of Felixstowe and access to the countryside will remain undisturbed until such time as an increase in the pace and scale of change is demonstrated to be in the best social and economic interests of the town.”

Where should new homes be built in the Felixstowe area? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk