Potential traveller site at Felixstowe is put up for sale by landowner

The site opposite Treetops at Felixstowe which was controversially earmarked for a travellers' site and has now been put up for sale by Suffolk County Council. (Image: Archant)

More than 700 objections were made in just seven days after Suffolk County Council announced that the land between Treetops and the Candlet Road Walton bypass on the edge of Felixstowe could become one of three new short-stay sites.

Now the 1.29-acre site is set to be sold at auction with a guide price of £50,000.

Council officials say the land, which has permission for grazing, is suitable for development, possibly housing, and would “potentially suit a number of alternative uses” – though residents and some councillors would like to see it become a community orchard.

Town councillor Kimberley Williams said the 231metre by 34m site would be an ideal spot for a Scattered Orchard Project, for which the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team has received funding.

She has suggested the town council bid for the site at the auction at noon on August 5 at the Orwell Hotel, Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, to create a green community space.

She said: “The land lends itself to an orchard, beneficial for both wildlife and residents, and would act as a noise buffer to the A14 traffic.

“It would also protect that area from any further consideration for a traveller camp.”

Residents were furious at the possibility of having a travellers’ site opposite their homes, and were supported in their short but successful campaign against the project by councillors and Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey who labelled the idea as “highly inappropriate”

After the huge amount of objections to the site and six others across Suffolk, the county council abandoned the consultation on travellers’ sites but said it would revisit the issue after further research into other potential sites to prevent unauthorised encampments.