Concern about North Felixstowe Garden Neighbourhood scheme

Felixstowe Town Council is urging East Suffolk Council to halt the North Felixstowe Garden Neighbourhood scheme, which it is overseeing and will see the homes being built on a 350 acre site stretching from the A14 Dock Spur roundabout to Eastward Ho!

A spokesperson for East Suffolk Council said it was fully engaging with key stakeholders and welcomed the thoughts of the town council which was an important partner.

Town councillors spent an hour and a half discussing the development at a meeting on Wednesday (November 6) and felt that circumstances had changed since the housing was first allocated in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and the war in Ukraine.

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The town's mayor David Rowe, who was present for the meeting, said: "We believe that Felixstowe is taking more than its fair share.

"We have asked for a review of housing allocation and we have asked for a pause until they can reassure us about secondary school places."

Mr Rowe added councillors were concerned that the town's only secondary school, Felixstowe School, was nearly full to capacity and children would have to be bussed to schools in other nearby towns.

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Felixstowe mayor David Rowe said the town was taking more than its fair share of housing (Image: Felixstowe Town Council) A motion was prepared for the meeting, which outlined the town council's wishes for six key areas of the development, including leisure facilities, housing, green spaces, allotments, infrastructure and education.

Within these areas, the council has called for improvements to medical facilities at Felixstowe Community Hospital, as well as dental capacity, while infrastructure proposals included dedicated cycleways and a footbridge to improve integration with other communities.

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The town council also called for green space to be maintained and expanded where possible and welcomed plans to upgrade playing pitches at the Eastward Ho! recreation ground, while advocating for the creation of a country park to promote outdoor leisure.

However, education provision was the main priority for the councillors present.

Councillor Darren Aitchison, chair of governors at Felixstowe School, told the meeting population forecasts for the coming years would put the school "over capacity" and result in parents sending children to schools out of town.

He said: "This is an absolute travesty and should not be the case for any community let alone one that only has a single high school."

However, he added that "finally the right people" were starting to listen to his warnings and things might improve with plans to provide an additional building to increase capacity at the school in High Street.

A consultation meeting about the garden neighbourhood was set to be held at Felixstowe School on Thursday between 5.30pm and 8pm, featuring a question and answer session with a panel.

An East Suffolk Council spokesperson said: “As part of the master-planning consultation process for the North Felixstowe Garden Neighbourhood, we are fully engaging with a range of key stakeholders.

"The town council is an important partner and although we have not yet received a formal response from them, we always welcome their considered thoughts.

"They have already made it clear that they look forward to continuing to work closely with us as the masterplan progresses, as do we with them.

“As they know, we are still at a very early stage, with no final proposals to consider.

"When the project advances to the planning stage, Felixstowe Town Council will be an important consultee and will have the opportunity to present their assessment of the final proposals once they are in place.”

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