MAJOR housing developments in Suffolk towns over the next 25 years are inevitable but must be sustainable, according to a district planning controller.

Framlingham is among five market towns, with Aldeburgh, Leiston, Saxmundham and Woodbridge, to be selected for significant residential and commercial growth between now and 2027 in Suffolk Coastal’s Local Development Framework (LDF).

Last week concerns were raised at the town council’s annual meeting about Framlingham’s capability to cope with the arrival of hundreds of new homes.

District councillor Christopher Hudson, who also sits on the development control committee, said: “There will be a lot of development but it has to be done in accordance with a plan.

“I understand where people are coming from. They don’t want to be swamped.

“At the annual town meeting it was said that there were between 400 and 600 homes in the pipeline that have been given planning permission.

“We need certain types of housing. We need one bedroom houses for people living on their own. There has to be managed development.”

In December, the Government’s planning inspector recommended the district proceed with the formal consultation on the Core Strategy (CS) of the LDF, and on an additional Sustainability Appraisal considering 11,000 homes – a figure based on Oxford Economics forecasts – despite the revised CS proposing an overall figure of just 7,900.

Framlingham has been developing its own plan, which will be part of policy for determining planning applications. But if landowners and developers can deliver what the CS sets out, the plan would serve only to negotiate what the community wants from new developments.