Ipswich Tories pretend they want consultation.

St Clement's Hospital- soon to be houses?

The Ipswich Tories, with plenty of input from their Lib Dem allies have recently launched their plans for housing in Ipswich over the next 13 years. The Local Development Framework (LDF) outlines a number of options for housing across Ipswich. Their "preferred option" includes building 442 houses on gardens across the town and 43 housing units on the Halifax Road play area- a place where the council has spent thousands on play equipment recently!

One option not in the LDF is to build on the Northern Fringe (Valley Road area). It seems they will build on any brown/green space in the town rather than build in the North. They feel there will be no need to build on the northern fringe till after 2021.

Of course their excuse is to blame the Government for setting a figure of 15,400 dwellings to be built in Ipswich by 2021.

In Rushmere we have a possibility of 16 dwellings on the site of the Colchester Road Fire station and of an even greater concern is the plan to build 97 homes on the site of the old driving test centre on Woodbridge Road, this of course is right next to the current building development on the site of the old Hayhill's allotments.

A number of residents are only finding out about these plans thanks to a leaflet campaign by my fellow Labour colleagues. There does seem that no major effort has been made by the Tories or Lib Dems to get the views of local residents. No plans to arrange any public meetings, this is particularly distressing for those residents who live near some of the sites which are earmarked for large housing developments such as the plan for the St Clement's Hospital site.

The Ipswich Labour Party will keep working to inform as many residents as possible, you have till February 25th to send in your views to Ipswich Borough Council. you can find more details of the LDF here.

The local paper 'The Evening Star' are also running a story highlighting the concern of local residents that there seems to be no real attempt by the Tory/Lib Dems to include the residents of Ipswich in any meaningful consultation on the plans for housing within the Borough. You can read that story here.

Remember you have at present till the 25th February to get your views listened to by the Tory/LibDems. You can contact me through this blog if you want further details on the LDF.