Work to build 60 new homes for rent on the former Took’s Bakery site on Old Norwich Road in Ipswich is set to start before the end of February.

Ipswich Star: Old Bakery Site on Old Norwich Road. Groundworks started in 2016 - but the main development should get under way next month.Old Bakery Site on Old Norwich Road. Groundworks started in 2016 - but the main development should get under way next month.

The new homes are being built by Handford Homes, the housing development company set up by Ipswich Council, and will include 41 new council houses and 19 homes that will be leased by Handford Lettings at a market rent.

Members of the borough’s executive are to be given an update on the progress of the project at their meeting next Tuesday.

Work is due to start almost immediately with ground works completed by the end of July.

The contractors are Gipping Construction, and they hope to be handing over completed homes to the borough and Handford Lettings by June next year.

Ipswich Star: Tooks Bakery is in the centre of this aerial view from around 1970. The Norwich Road (Now the Old Norwich Road) runs from the top to the bottom. Whitehouse Road is at the top of the picture. Companies working in Whitehouse Road were (from the left) Newsteads Bakeries Ltd, C.W. Juby Ltd engineers, Cantell and Cochrane soft drink manufacturers, Danish Bacon Co Ltd and Betabake bakers (off the picture). The Whitton United football ground is on the right. Did you work at any of the companies featured? (Photo by Jim Empson)Tooks Bakery is in the centre of this aerial view from around 1970. The Norwich Road (Now the Old Norwich Road) runs from the top to the bottom. Whitehouse Road is at the top of the picture. Companies working in Whitehouse Road were (from the left) Newsteads Bakeries Ltd, C.W. Juby Ltd engineers, Cantell and Cochrane soft drink manufacturers, Danish Bacon Co Ltd and Betabake bakers (off the picture). The Whitton United football ground is on the right. Did you work at any of the companies featured? (Photo by Jim Empson) (Image: Dave Kindred)

The total cost of the project has gone up to £9.5m – which works out at £158,000 per property.

Most of the homes will be semi-detached houses, but there is a block of flats included in the plan.

The 41 council houses will be offered to tenants at a social rent while the 19 leased by Handford Lettings (also owned by the council) will be offered at a market rent which is expected to be more expensive for tenants.

The council was forced into this arrangement after a government decision prevented it from building an all council-tenant development on Ravenswood three years ago. Negotiations on the proposals have delayed work on the Took’s site.

Ipswich Star: Were you on the staff at Tooks bakery, Ipswich when these photographs were taken in the 1970s. (Photos by Ivan Smith/Archant) TooksWere you on the staff at Tooks bakery, Ipswich when these photographs were taken in the 1970s. (Photos by Ivan Smith/Archant) Tooks (Image: Archant)

Access to the development will be from a new junction on the Old Norwich Road.

A new “Super-Surgery” to replace the Deben Road and Chesterfield Drive surgeries in north west Ipswich is due to be built on land next to the homes within the next few years – but the £9.5m project is still going through NHS planning processes.

The Took’s Bakery was a feature of Norwich Road for decades – and was part of a cluster of bakeries in the area with Betabake and Newsteads on nearby Whitehouse Road.

It closed in 2001 and the site has been vacant since then.

There have been attempts to find developers willing to use this area of town for housing over the last 18 years – but nothing has come forward until the borough, through Handford Homes, developed this proposal which should see the first homes occupied next year.