By Danielle NuttallRESIDENTS have welcomed a plan to build more than 500 homes on the site of a former cement works.Persimmon Homes Anglia has submitted a planning application to Mid Suffolk District Council to build 537 homes and retail units on the former Masons Cement Works in Great Blakenham.

By Danielle Nuttall

RESIDENTS have welcomed a plan to build more than 500 homes on the site of a former cement works.

Persimmon Homes Anglia has submitted a planning application to Mid Suffolk District Council to build 537 homes and retail units on the former Masons Cement Works in Great Blakenham.

The proposal is linked to the £320million SnOasis project, which will transform the derelict cement works into a winter sports resort.

Residents said they were happy with the proposal for new housing, but called for extra schooling and services to sustain the development.

Roger Saunders, leader of Mid Suffolk District Council, said: "In general terms, if the layout is acceptable and provision is made for extra schooling and other parts of the infrastructure to make the place sustainable, then it would be a good idea.

"It will help the shortage of houses in the area and will make good use of a brownfield site. Before it gets to the planning stage we have a policy that developments provide a reasonable amount of affordable housing.

"We would need significant money available to provide the schooling needed for the children who live in those houses.

"Whether there should be a doctor's surgery or not I do not know, but they should be considered carefully by the council."

The development includes a mix of one and two bedroom apartments as well as three and four-bedroom houses in two and three-storey blocks. There is also a plan for six retail/community units.

The 30-acre site is located on Bramford Road and Gipping Road and work is expected to start in spring or summer next year, if planning permission is granted.

More than 3,000 jobs are expected to be created through the SnOasis project, which will feature the world's largest indoor ski slope, facilities for 13 winter sports and a nine-hole golf course.

Detailed plans of the scheme were unveiled in a special exhibition earlier this month.

Great Blakenham resident, John Smyth, said he welcomed the proposal and approved of the layout of the new homes.

But he added provision needed to be made for a new school in the area to accommodate the new younger residents.

A spokesman for Persimmon Homes Anglia said: "In addition to creating much-needed new housing, Persimmon's proposed development will address local primary school shortfalls and, in conjunction with SnOasis, contribute to local highway improvements and the possibility of a new railway station on the main Norwich to London line."

danielle.nuttall@eadt.co.uk