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BBC Radio Suffolk – Coverage of tomorrow’s Planning Meeting

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BBC Radio Suffolk will be at the SCDC Planning Committee meeting tomorrow (Wednesday 24 February) at the SCDC Council Chamber, Melton Hill, Woodbridge to provide coverage. Luke Deal from the radio station will be there from 8:30am. Suffolk Radio have already been in touch with Kesgrave Town Council. If there are any local residents who won’t be going to the meeting but want to comment directly to Suffolk Radio they can email them via radiosuffolk@bbc.co.uk (although they can’t promise your comments will be aired).

Suffolk Coastal Planners recommend approval of Persimmon development

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As reported in the Ipswich Star, the Planning Department of Suffolk Coastal District Council are recommending their Council Planning Committee accept Persimmon’s application for 300 new homes at Bell Lane & Longstrops. The Planning Committee meet at 9am on Wednesday (24 February) to discuss and decide on the application with Persimmon’s application 2nd on the agenda. This is a public meeting held at the SCDC Council Chamber, Melton Hill, Woodbridge and Kesgrave Town Council have already stated that the Town Clerk and a Town Councillor will attend the meeting and speak against the application. Hopefully a good number of local residents will attend as well to show support against the proposed development.

The recommendation by the Planning Department comes after a large number of objections from local residents and Kesgrave Town Council. It also goes against the Planning Department’s long-term plan to provide 2,000 houses for the area at Adastral Park although these plans have been delayed and delayed through actions of NANT.

The summary opinion from the Planning Department is:
‘Land to the East of Bell Lane, Kesgrave:The site can make a beneficial contribution to the delivery of housing development to meet the housing needs of the District. The development of 2,000 homes at Adastral Park cannot be achieved in the plan period. The completion rates that would need to be realised as a result of the delay in bringing the Adastral Park scheme forward would not be achievable and so the allocation of land to the East of Bell Lane, Kesgrave, will in part ensure that the required levels of housing development can be achieved in the plan period.’

This link is the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting and includes all the information the Councilors should be considering before making a decision.

Persimmon Application for 300 homes – December 2015

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Persimmon Homes have made an application (reference DC/15/4672/OUT) for the phased development of 300 homes on the part of Longstrops adjacent to Bell Lane. Consultation expires on 28 December.

Full details are available, and comments by the Kesgrave public can be made, on the SCDC Planning website for this application (after registering and providing your name, email address and postal address). If you have a view on this proposal by Persimmon then please do comment before 28 December by following the above link to the SCDC Planning website. There are numerous reasons already listed on KAGE as to why this development of further housing should not be allowed.

Persimmon hope that the delays to starting the Adastral Park housing plan (it may be 2019 before the first houses are completed due to NANT’s many appeals, instead of 2014/15) have opened the door for them to develop 15 hectares of the 50 hectare Longstrops field. The section they want to develop now is the part nearest Bell Lane (from Bell Lane up to opposite the end of Cedarwood School) and the plans include the provision of land (and only land) for a new primary school. The phases would be 100 homes at a time starting first from the access from Bell Lane and working towards Cedarwood School. A map of the proposed development is as follows:

Longstrops-Plan-15ha-Nov2015

News of the application by Persimmon can also be viewed here on the Ipswich Star website.

Court of Appeal turns down NANT’s Appeal

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As reported by the BBC today, the Court of Appeal has turned down No Adastral New Town’s (NANT’s) appeal concerning the allocation of 2,000 new houses at BT’s Adastral Park site, as part of Suffolk Coastal District Council’s core strategy. This decision has just been announced and follows a 2 day court hearing late last month. The Appeal Court judges also refused to grant NANT permission to take its case to the Supreme Court but NANT can still apply directly to the Supreme Court in an attempt to get their case heard (although such costly action is unlikely to prove fruitful for NANT other than again delaying the use of the Adastral Park site).

With SCDC’s core strategy finally free from legal challenges, the SCDC Planning Department will be better positioned to recommend that any major applications for planning permission away from Adastral Park (such as Longstrops) are rejected.

NANT go to Court of Appeal in 2015

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NANT’s appeal is to be heard in 2015 by the Court of Appeal, meaning the SCDC are left without a large portion of their core plan for future housing until the case is decided – hence developers are likely to try and push other housing schemes through in the meantime. For more information see this EADT article.