B1456 Web Video

This video was shot in 2006/7 and submitted as evidence to the public inquiry into plans to build 325 homes at the former HMS Ganges site on the Shotley peninsula in Suffolk. The Secretary of State rejected the plans because of the "significant negative impact" that extra traffic would have on the conservation village of Woolverstone. Now the developers have a new plan to build 285 homes plus a 60 bed care home. Together with an already approved 150 home development at Shotley Marina this would add more than 1,100 to the population creating one of the largest communities in Suffolk at the tip of an isolated peninsula ten miles from the nearest town, Ipswich. The only road leading to this cul de sac is the narrow, twisting B1456. Already overloaded in 2007, traffic has since increased still more with the new Suffolk Food Hall, and redevelopment at the Woolverstone Marina, the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, a new housing scheme in Woolverstone and general infilling. A 5% increase in a conservation area is supposed to trigger a "detailed assessment" of traffic impacts. The latest scheme would put over 30% more traffic on the road but there has been no detailed assessment. Details of application B/12/00500/FUL can be found on Babergh District Council's planning portal - http://planning.babergh.gov.uk. Objections should go to Graham Chamberlain, Principal Planning Officer, Babergh District Council, Corks Lane, Hadleigh, Suffolk IP76SJ and will, we understand, be accepted up until the council's development committee meets in the Autumn.