Have a say on sites for development

PLANS for new homes and businesses that could shape the future of Beccles and Bungay have been unveiled.Waveney District Council has narrowed down the search for locations for development to just a handful of sites as part of its local development framework.

PLANS for new homes and businesses that could shape the future of Beccles and Bungay have been unveiled.

Waveney District Council has narrowed down the search for locations for development to just a handful of sites as part of its local development framework.

Public consultations have already taken place, but now people are being asked to have their say on the preferred choices.

The framework requires that at least 2,574 extra homes are built across Waveney by 2025. The market towns of Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth and Southwold (with Reydon) are expected to take on between 15pc and a quarter of the new housing growth, with Beccles tipped to take a large proportion of this because of the availability of brownfield sites. The favoured plans for Beccles include:

Transforming farmland into industrial use at Ellough Airfield.

Creating two acres of allotments on a field behind Nicholson Drive.

At Bungay, preferred plans include:

Eight homes at the telephone exchange site in Lower Olland Street.

Six homes where the community centre stands in Upper Olland Street.

The town could see a new community centre and “one-stop-shop” built next to the skatepark on the remaining half of the former grammar school playing field, with allotments being created off Wingfield Street and extra land for burials next to Bungay cemetery. Farmland behind Waveney Valley Swimming Pool could be used for industry.

Exhibitions on the preferred sites run at the council's Beccles local office and at Bungay Library between tomorrow and Wednesday.