Save Trimley Against Growth - STAG - Community Action Group Opposing Large Scale Housing Developments

SAVE FELIXSTOWE

SAVE TRIMLEY AGAINST GROWTH - FIGHTING TO SAVE THE TRIMLEY VILLAGES

Welcome to the web site of STAG - the community action group dedicated to preserving the villages of Trimley St Mary and Trimley St Martin from unnecessary and unwanted large scale housing developments on greenfield land surrounding or close to the Trimley Villages. We have two major opponents :

·	Trinity College, Cambridge, the major landowners, who have a ‘Vision’ for our area which involves building up to 3000 new homes - and perhaps a supermarket - on unspoiled countryside, and

·	SCDC’s Local Development Framework Task Group, who seem determined to manipulate housing statistics to ‘prove’ that the only place suitable for large scale housing developments is around the Trimley Villages.

SEPTEMBER 2006 - STAG’S PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

1. The Local Development Framework Task Group will opt for Housing Option Six ‘Going For Managed Growth In The District Beyond The Year 2021’ with 2720 extra houses around Felixstowe and the Trimley Villages.
2. When updated statistics for houses built, outstanding planning permissions and greenfield land availability are published the number of new homes needed will be drastically reduced.
3. The LDF will then change the goalposts and decide that we need even more homes to come back to a figure approaching their original 2720 units.

The following is an extract from the LDF Task Group Minutes from July 2006 : “The Task Group considered that Option 6 for the spatial distribution of housing across the District was the right way forward as other Options would be unsustainable. This means that RSS requirements would be exceeded but the Council would be able to plan the District beyond 2021, particularly relevant in the Ipswich Policy Area and Felixstowe/Trimleys where allocations could be made as a first phase or phases thereby enabling the increase to be spread over a longer period.”

“LEGAL” NOTICE
This is a humble community web site. The views published here are those of the individuals and organizations who wish to express their concern about very large housing developments which have been proposed on geenfield land around the Trimley Villages.
If any of the views published on this web site cause offence to any person or body let’s hope you are big enough to take our heartfelt opinions on the chin.

“You are going to get 5620 houses on greenfield land.”

MARCH 2008 - DID OUR PREDICTIONS COME TRUE?

In March 2007 the updated housing survey was done for houses built, planning applications granted and outstanding, and houses built on windfill sites, and the results were approximately as predicted in the September 2006 Stag Report, and definitely not what the LDF Task Group wanted to see - there was little or no need for houses in significant numbers to be built on the Felixstowe Peninsula.

So, as predicted the LDF Task Group changed the goalposts - 3 more years were added to the timetable, the impact of infill housing was ignored until the final years, and several brownfield sites in Felixstowe were excluded because of so-called flood risks. But even with all this twisting and turning they could “only” come up with a supposed “need” for 1620 more houses on greenfield land on the Felixstowe peninsula up to the year 2024. With an average of 510 houses built per year this meant that the number of houses to be built on greenfield land up to the year 2021 was almost zero.

We thought we had just about won the argument - 2021 was a long way away and there was a good chance that brownfield sites would become available before then. The second “Blobs On Maps” consultation exercise was launched in February 2008 and we were confident that infrastructure and A14 overcrowding arguments would prevail.

And then the clever and honourable people on Felixstowe Town Council met to decide on their response to the consultation exercise. Did they look at infrastructure problems? No! Did they worry about congestion on the A14? No! Did they critically examine the claims about increased employment at the Docks? No! Without doing any of these things they voted to add another blob onto the map - what STAG have christened as SuperBlob 6, being a new eco community to serve the housing needs of the whole District, and amounting to 4000 extra houses. And that is not all - they also voted for Blob 4, with 1620 houses. Therefore, at a stroke, Felixstowe Town Council have exceeded STAG’s predictions by a very long mile!

But, you might think, it is only Felixstowe Town Council, and this will surely be overturned when the LDF Task Group considers all the consultation responses as a whole.

Think again - and be very afraid for the future of the greenfield land around the Trimley Villages. SuperBlob 6 was proposed by Mike Ninnmey who, as well as being a Liberal democrat Felixstowe Town Councillor, is also a Suffolk Coastal District Councillor and serves on the LDF Task Group. As an LDF Task Group member is he going to speak against or vote against SuperBlob 6. Not in a million years. The SuperBlob 6 proposal was seconded by Andy Smith, Chairman of the LDF Task Group, and despite protestations that he will examine all proposals “in the round” and “without predetermininh hos response at SCSC” there is also not a snowball’s chance in Hell that he will oppose SuperBlob 6 or Blob 4 when they are considered by the LDF Task Group.

If there is one thing you can be sure of today it is this - Trinity College, either alone or possibly in partnership with other landowners, are currently preparing the latest version of their unwelcome “Vision” for our future, and it will be even worse that the “Vision” they concocted in 2002.

If The LDF Task Group Succeeds, Be Prepared For :
More than 5600 new houses on greenfield land surrounding our villages
A population increase of more than 13000 people
An extra 10000 cars on the road
20 years of house building chaos
Anonymous housing estates stretching from Felixstowe to Ipswich
A drop in the value of every owned house in the villages.

The Consequences For The Trimley Villages Will Be :
The High Road and A14 will be jammed with traffic all day and every day
Ambulances and fire engines unable to speed to emergencies
People unable to get adequate - or any - medical or dental care
New nursery, primary and secondary schools will need to be built
Complete replacement of the power and sewerage infrastructure

The Trimley Villages Will Be Transformed :
Complete loss of our environment and rural identity
Housing estates blighting the landscape
Bored children and teenagers roaming the streets.