CONSULTATION into a proposal to demolish a former brickworks and build 15 new homes in Aldeburgh will end next week.

A planning application has been submitted to Suffolk Coastal District Council for the old Reade’s site in Saxmundham Road.

Applicant MS Oakes Securities Limited wants to build 10 four-bedroomed two-storey detached properties and five two-bedroomed single story almshouses, that would be used for low rent affordable homes. The district council’s statutory consultation period ends on Monday – but views sent in after this date will be considered.

Ruth Proctor, clerk to Aldeburgh Town Council, said members’ main concern was that the proposed development was outside the town envelope and there were worries it could set a precedent. She also said it was felt safeguards should be put in place to ensure the almshouses are not used for holiday lets.

The same concerns have also been expressed by the Aldeburgh Society, which would also like to see a condition that ensures no future development of the site.

“If the applicant intended to retain freedom to develop other land in the vicinity in the future, it would be quite wrong for this application to be determined without requiring the applicant to disclose its intentions for such future development,” the group’s submission to the district council reads.

“If this is just a first application for the applicant’s land in the area, it would be of quite a different character from what is presented.”

The brickworks is a brownfield site within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The scheme has been designed to take account of a right of way for Aldeburgh Yacht Club that allows members to access a boat house on the site.

A planning design and access statement submitted to the district council says the applicant is in favour of a “sympathetic” layout. It also says that it was felt views across the River Alde and Aldeburgh should be maintained.

“For the benefit of the local area most of the site will not be built on, but left undeveloped and managed to retain existing views,” it says.

Mark Oakes, from MS Oakes Securities Ltd, said he had not seen the town council’s and Aldeburgh Society’s responses but there were no plans to develop that area of the site further and that the almshouses would not be holiday lets.

“The scheme has been given a terrific amount of thought and been subject to a great deal of pre-application discussion with the local authority,” he said.