Villages across the county have felt under siege from proposals to build new homes.

The long-running row in East Bergholt over plans for more than 200 new homes has caught the headlines – but there have also been skirmishes in Kersey, Boxford, Bildeston, Debenham, Chelmondiston, Botesdale and many other communities.

Developers often claim that bringing more homes to a village will allow them to safeguard local services like the pub, the village shop and the school. Plans of more than a handful of homes all have to contain an element of “affordable” housing available for social rent or as a mixed-tenure home.

However residents often fear that a large number of new homes will damage the rural nature of their village – and will bring with them more traffic. And developers often point out that many villages now have smaller populations than they did decades ago.