Community leaders are being asked to visit two sites on the edge of Framlingham where developers want to build nearly 300 new homes.

Planning officers feel it is essential councillors see the sites for themselves before they debate the planning applications and come to a decision.

Taylor Wimpey has applied for permission for 163 new homes on 16 acres of land in Fairfield Road, with the project set to include 53 affordable homes and three children’s play areas.

Meanwhile, Persimmon Homes has applied to build 107 dwellings, including 32 affordable, on a 7.5-acre field at Mount Pleasant.

Hopkins Homes already has consent for 140 homes off Station Road – which would bring the total of new homes for the town to 410 and a potential increase in the population of around 20%.

The number of homes has generated concerns about how the town’s schools, doctors and roads can cope with the added strain.

At a public meeting in the autumn, politicians faced a barrage of protests with claims that it was “obscene, wrong and vulgar” to build on greenfield sites in the town when there were brownfield options available.

Framlingham Town Council supports the Mount Pleasant plans in principle but has objected to the current application becasue of the layout and concerns over traffic.

However, the council unanimously agreed the Fairfield Road scheme was premature and should be delayed until the new Neighbourhood Plan is in place to enable residents to have a say on an overall plan for the future of the market town.

Both the Mount Pleasant and Fairfield Road schemes will be decided in the new year by Suffolk Coastal’s north area development management sub committee following site visits.

Head of planning Philip Ridley said the Mount Pleasant site was in open countryside outside the town boundary but sandwiched between other housing developments.

He said: “The agents are currently in the process of undertaking extensive discussions with the local planning authority and the county highways authority to resolve issues which have been raised concerning the layout, design and appearance of the site and the house types of the dwellings proposed.

“It is hoped that concerns regarding highway safety, layout, design and residential amenity can reach a resolution in the next month whereby the application could be re-advertised and – subject to allowing sufficient consultation periods – the proposal may reach committee shortly after this.”

The Fairfield Road is partly inside two flood zones because of the risk of flooding from the River Ore, which runs alongside the site.

The scheme would include play areas, surface water basins as part of drainage plans, retention of current fieldpath routes with new proposed footpaths surrounding the site.

Mr Ridley said: “The site is proposed to be phased in its development over a period of three years starting in the north of the site and finishing in the south.”