VILLAGERS will next month have their first chance to see for themselves the proposals to merge and treble the size of the Trimleys with 3,000 new homes.

VILLAGERS will next month have their first chance to see for themselves the proposals to merge and treble the size of the Trimleys with 3,000 new homes.

Trimley St Martin Parish Council has arranged an informal open meeting at which residents will be able to see the plans on display – and ask questions.

But it will not be a public meeting or part of formal consultation, just an early opportunity to see the ideas first-hand, get extra information and begin to generate debate in the village on the project.

Council chairman Nigel Smith said the event would take place on Saturday August 9 from 10am to 12 noon at the Memorial Hall, High Road.

Tim Collins, a partner in land agents Bidwells, which has submitted the vision for the future of the Trimleys on behalf of landowners Trinity College, Cambridge, will be available to talk to villagers to explain the plans and answer their questions and concerns.

"We think it is important that people in the village get to see the plans as soon as possible so they get an idea of what is being talked about," said Mr Smith.

"The morning will be very informal, not a panel of people answering questions and giving speeches or debate, but a chance to have a look at the documents and see what people think, their first impressions."

Trimley St Mary Parish Council is also planning a similar morning for the other twin village and is hoping this will take place in early September.

The glossy 30 pages of plans, maps and diagrams, which have been submitted to Suffolk Coastal council for consideration as part of the local plan review, are also available in Felixstowe Library.

Both parish councils want to gauge public opinion before deciding their own view on the scheme.

District planners have given no early indication of their opinion of the far-reaching scheme, which will change the historic twin villages forever, and say the plans will be "reviewed and judged on their own merits".

They have also warned that Trinity College's suggestions for a long-term and comprehensive development of the villages might not be the only vision which comes forward for their future.

Trinity College's plan has taken two years of research and envisages all the spare land between the A14 and railway line filled in with as many as 3,000 homes, new shops, small-scale employment, a new school, greens, a park, plus improvements to the surrounding countryside.

The vision shows how the area could be developed over the next 15 to 20 years rather than leaving it to fragmented ad hoc development.

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