PROPOSALS for 1,400-plus new homes in Felixstowe were last night thrown out by community leaders as they called for more development in smaller towns and villages.

Richard Cornwell

PROPOSALS for 1,400-plus new homes in Felixstowe were last night thrown out by community leaders as they called for more development in smaller towns and villages.

Town councillors accepted there would be a need for some homes, especially affordable housing, but said this should be built on brownfield sites, not fields, and urged planners to reject plans for “substantial growth” of the resort.

Instead, they asked for homes to be distributed “fairly and evenly” across the Suffolk Coastal area to provide smaller communities with housing they desperately need to protect their village schools, shops, pubs and other facilities.

The surprise vote came after a series of passionate speeches from residents at a packed meeting at Orwell High School.

District planners had already agreed to reduce the number of homes proposed by one-third - with Martlesham now taking the majority of the development over the next 15 years.

Councillor Mike Deacon said the 1,400 still being proposed was too many and would be a “major disaster” for the town.

“It is madness to think about such numbers when we have only one major, already busy, road in and out. It is wrong to attract an increasing population here, and I don't believe it will be very easy to attract the diversification of companies we need because of the major transport problems we have,” he said.

But councillor Andy Smith said: “We need to face reality and the reality is that Felixstowe needs more houses - for a start, people are living longer. We need them for future generations.”

He said Felixstowe was taking 18pc of the housing growth - calculating it equitably would mean it should take more, not less.

Residents though supported Mr Deacon.

Gill Mason, of campaign group Save Felixstowe Countryside, said: “I am trying to protect my community from plans which will seriously damage it, knock thousands of pounds off the value of homes, spoil views, pollute the environment, and overload the transport system.”