HUNDREDS of new jobs could be created in Bury St Edmunds with the announcement plans for a massive new business park.Details of the forthcoming local plan for St Edmundsbury show a 170-acre site on the outskirts of town has been earmarked for "additional employment" land where planners hope a business park will be built.

HUNDREDS of new jobs could be created in Bury St Edmunds with the announcement plans for a massive new business park.

Details of the forthcoming local plan for St Edmundsbury show a 170-acre site on the outskirts of town has been earmarked for "additional employment" land where planners hope a business park will be built.

The land lies close to Moreton Hall between the existing Suffolk Business Park and the Rougham Industrial Estate along the A14 and would be served by a new relief road paid for by developers.

Ian Poole, St Edmundsbury planning policy manager, said: "There is a lot of commuting from Bury to paces like Cambridge and Ipswich and we want to redress that balance by creating jobs in the area to support the gradual growth of the town and the borough."

Mr Poole added that it was impossible to calculate how many jobs would be created, but said it would be somewhere 'in the hundreds'.

The proposal for the business plan is contained within the St Edmundsbury Local Plan which will set the agenda for business and housing growth in the borough up until 2016, and the news has been welcomed by members of the business community and civic leaders.

Town mayor Frank Warby said: "Bury is growing so fast especially up at Moreton Hall, we are building houses at a rate of 440 a year and we need to bring employment in to sustain that."

The document also includes confirmation that planners have withdrawn proposals to build 600 new homes on land at Westley, as reported by the EADT in January, and Mr Poole explained that the 8,800 new homes allocation for the borough up to the year 2016 could be met through existing development sites, with no need to divert any further large areas of land.

The new local plan proposals will be published on Tuesday, March 1, which will begin a six week consultation exercise, when members of the public and organisations will have the chance to air their views.

A local plan inquiry is expected to be held in September, when petitions for changes to the plan will be heard, and under new legislation, a Government inspector appointed to conduct the inquiry will dictate the final draft of the plan.