A PUBLIC meeting will be held tonight about a controversial project to build 35 properties for more than 100 people in a social housing scheme in Woodbridge.

A PUBLIC meeting will be held tonight about a controversial project to build 35 properties for more than 100 people in a social housing scheme in Woodbridge.

The Suffolk Heritage Housing Association project in the north of the town aims to relieve pressure on the housing waiting list and provide homes for people who want to remain in their home town but cannot afford the escalating prices.

Many houses close to the site have displayed posters in their windows opposing the scheme and a Residents Against Haugh Lane Development Association has been formed.

The Association is holding a public meeting at 7pm tonight at the Evangelical Church, Warwick Avenue, Woodbridge, and it hopes representatives from the district council and the housing association will attend.

Suffolk Coastal District Council's development control sub committee will visit the one-hectare site situated behind properties in Warwick Avenue, Bredfield Road, Woolnough Road and Haughgate Close before making a decision in June or July.

Jeremy Schofield, the district council's director of planning and leisure, said in a report to the committee: ''There are a number of key issues, some of which are site specific and relate to the access road, the impact on trees within the site, the proximity of the new houses to site boundaries and their relationship with existing properties – particularly the bungalows in Woolnough Road and the relationship of the new dwellings to each other.

''Further negotiations and investigations are being carried out on these issues and other matters.''

The proposed development is a block of four one-bedroom flats and a block of four two-bedroom flats. There are 15 two-bedroom houses, 10 three-bedroom and two four-bedroom houses either in terracing or semi-detached properties. A small play area is planned.

Mr Schofield said there had been a considerable number of objections from nearby residents and a full report of these would be presented when the committee met to make its decision.