IPSWICH: Leading borough councillor Paul West has linked up with a giant toad in an attempt to persuade his colleagues to drop plans to sell a controversial meadow for development.

The borough owns Kiln Meadow in Pinewood – even though it is in the Babergh district.

As revealed in the Star last week, it is now set to sell the 11-acre site for development with up to 170 homes to be built there.

The move has prompted fury from members of the Ipswich Wildlife Group who have been trying to protect the meadow, which has the largest recorded population of toads in Britain.

It is wedged between Spring Wood, Millennium Wood, and the Bobbitt’s Lane Local Nature Reserve and is home to a variety of wildlife.

Ipswich Council claims it needs the millions of pounds that the sale will bring in – and that four of the 11 acres will have to be left as a nature reserve.

However, Ray Sidaway from the Ipswich Wildlife Group said the four acres could not be developed anyway – it is too near a sewage plant for homes to be built.

The group has collected 800 signatures for a petition which was presented to Mr West at Grafton House, on Monday.

He will represent the protesters at a meeting of the council’s executive next Tuesday which will decide whether to sell the land.

He said: “I have serious concerns about the sale and so do many of the residents I represent.

“I will be presenting this petition and making their case to the executive.”

n Should Kiln Meadow be developed? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.