Major housing scheme planned for town

By Sarah Chambers

A PLAN for a 163-home development in Leiston has been submitted to Suffolk Coastal District Council.

The detailed application, submitted by Colne Projects Ltd, is for a mixed development including bungalows, houses and flats and 24 affordable homes in a field area behind the town's St Margaret's Crescent.

About 7.5 acres of the site was granted outline consent in 1992 for 70 homes, but last year the council refused to renew the permission following new Government guidelines calling for brownfield sites to be developed before greenfield areas.

The proposed development area for the current application includes a 5.5-acre Leiston Middle School playing field not used by pupils in many years.

The playing field belongs to Suffolk County Council and negotiations with the developers have been ongoing for some time.

A spokeswoman for the county council said it had agreed to sell four acres of the five-acre site, with one acre being retained for public open space, provided the developers secured planning permission and secured alternative playing fields for the school.

Any revenue from the sale would go to help fund improvements to Leiston Middle School.

The application is likely to go before Suffolk Coastal District Council's development control sub-committee in July and is expected to face some.

Mother-of-three Sarah Collings, of St Margaret's Crescent, has written to the district council to object to the proposal.

She was concerned about the large-scale development being proposed, an increase in traffic, the loss of a recreation area and the impact it would have on places at local schools.

Leiston Town Council will consider the plan at a special meeting at the Day Centre, King George's Avenue, on June 17 at 7.30pm.

sarah.chambers@eadt.co.uk