TRANSPORT experts are being asked to meet villagers to discuss fears over future traffic chaos if hundreds of new homes are built.

Parish councillors in Trimley St Mary are becoming increasingly worried that High Road will not be able to cope – and will suffer gridlock.

The street is the only way in and out of the village and sometimes the only route for all traffic, including container lorries, when an incident closes the A14.

Over the next few years all the fields between the A14 and railway line could potentially be used for new homes, pouring thousands more vehicles on to High Road every day.

Currently, applications are in for nearly 400 homes at Walton Green, 66 at the mushroom farm, and possibly up to 100 off Thurmans Lane.

Parish council chairman Colin Jacobs said: “If all this building goes ahead my personal view is that the villages will grind to a halt.

“At times it is almost like that now.”

Councillor Graham Harding said: “High Road is totally inadequate for the volume of traffic that is using it now.

“We have a situation where a lot of people appear to no longer be using the dock spur roundabout because of the new adjustments and the traffic lights and are coming through the Trimleys instead.

“This road is still as much as it was in the 1800s when people walked cattle along it to market and I am very concerned about it. If we put more and more houses onto our fields, all the cars from those homes will come onto High Road and that will have an impact on the quality of life of people living here.”

Traffic consultants employed by the Walton Green Partnership, which is behind the plans for a Tesco superstore and 390 homes, have been asked to meet the parish council.