A blueprint for a 1,100-home development which will deliver vital additional housing and employment to the Sudbury area over the next 20 years has been submitted to the district council for consideration, the EADT can reveal.

A masterplan for the long-awaited 270-acre Chilton Woods scheme was released for public consultation in February after the majority landowner Suffolk County Council invested £1.6million to get the project back on track without a developer on board.

Changes were made to the previous plan put forward by Redrow Homes, which pulled out as development partner in 2013 citing that escalating costs had made it unviable.

Last night the county council confirmed that an outline planning application had just been submitted to Babergh District Council for the proposed Chilton Woods development.

A spokesman said the application had been shaped by views received during the pre-planning consultation period at the beginning of the year, and through discussions with a range of statutory consultees.

Suffolk County Councillor, Robert Whiting, member with special responsibility for property said: “I am pleased we have reached a position where this application can now be submitted for consideration and consultation.”

The Chilton Woods site, which is in an area between Chilton, Acton, Sudbury and Long Melford, is allocated for development in Babergh’s local plan - an over-arching document for how the area will be shaped up to 2031.

It is recognised as an ideal location to meet local housing and employment needs and would deliver wider benefits for the area including a new primary school, village hall, community woodland, a pub, shops, sports pitches and walking/cycling routes.

At the public consultation events, concerns were raised about additional traffic generated by the development and its impact on the area’s already overcrowded roads.

District councillors have been shown the new plan ahead of the application. Jan Osborne, the member for Sudbury east ward said there were still a few issues to be resolved.

She said: “There have been a few changes to the plan including the number of houses, which has gone down from 1,250 to 1,100.

“The biggest concerns at consultation stage were about the level of traffic coming in and out from surrounding villages and into Sudbury via Waldingfield Road and East Street.

“This should be addressed in the accompanying traffic study which we (district councillors) have not yet been shown.

“My personal feeling is that it’s important that we get a masterplan through or else we will have developers coming in off-piste buying little parcels of land and we will get no community benefits at all.

“The proposed development plan will meet the high allocation that we have for housing in the area - overall, I think it’s a good masterplan and the detail can be tweaked at a later stage.”

Once the district council has registered the application, all relevant documents will be available to view at www.babergh.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planning/chilton-woods-strategic-development-site/