DEFIANT residents packed a meeting to discuss plans to build 2,000 new homes on the edge of BT's Adastral Park complex at Martlesham.

Jo Thewlis

DEFIANT residents packed a meeting to discuss plans to build 2,000 new homes on the edge of BT's Adastral Park complex at Martlesham.

Around 150 campaigners crammed into Trinity Park on Thursday night to hear councillors' views on plans to create what protestors have dubbed a 'new town' east of the A12 at Martlesham Heath.

Joe Clark, 74, has lived in Waldringfield for 40 years and said campaigners would fight “tooth and nail” against the scheme.

Mr Clark said after the meeting: “If we get this development, Waldringfield will be swamped.

“I accept there has to be some housing but, if they develop the BT site, we will just become part of Ipswich.”

Criticisms of the scheme were met with round of applause by objectors at the meeting, which lasted around three-and-a-half hours before being adjourned to a later date.

Campaigners have created the No Adastral New Town (NANT) pressure group, which they say will increase urbanisation.

“I think it is absolutely outrageous,” Mr Clark said. “People don't want this development and they will fight tooth and nail against it.”

Ian Kay, chairman of Waldringfield Parish Council claimed: “A lot of people are very concerned about this.

“It has raised a lot of feeling in the area. Suffolk Coastal are pushing through a development that most people don't want.”

The planned development is part of Suffolk Coastal District Council's local development framework (LDF) to build 7,710 new homes by 2025.

Villagers fear traffic problems could be worsened in the area if the development goes ahead as well as put extra pressure on the villages' infrastructure.

The NANT group would like to see a broader distribution of housing developments across the district, to throw a lifeline to villages struggling to survive.

But council planning chiefs argue the development would boost facilities in the area and create a 'stand-alone community' with its own amenities, including a primary school.

The plans will be discussed further at a continuation of the meeting at Trinity Park at 10am on Monday, February 1.