12/04/08: Letter submitted by CPCA to Suffolk Coastal District Council,
Re: Housing Growth in Felixstowe:

For the attention of Mr S Brown

Dear Sir,

At the General Meeting of the Cavendish Park Community Association, on Monday 7th April, a proposition was passed, unanimously, to oppose the selection of area 4 as the site for the housing development.

We are situated in the West of Felixstowe and our main access and egress is via the Dock-Spur Round-about. We have problems with traffic delays at present and this is before “Stacking” is implemented on windy days when the dock is closed; on these occasions it becomes a nightmare. We fear that one day the emergency services will be delayed on gaining access to our part of the town.

We know from developments in the pipeline that over the next 10 years or so we will see extra traffic on the Dock-Spur Round-about– expansion of the docks (a minimum of 3000 Lorries plus other vehicles working on the docks per day). Distribution centre on Blofieds (potentially 740 lorry journeys plus other vehicles for workers at the centre), add to this the vehicles associated with the already planned housing of 600 homes within Felixstowe; I hope you can see the immense problems this alone will cause before adding 1620 homes with potentially 2000 cars (many homes have more than one car and more than one working member of the household), on to that round-about.

Major changes are needed on the Dock-Spur Round-about now, before dock expansion, distribution warehouse or further homes are built. It is essential that a dock-feeder road be built from west of the Trimleys in-order to take the dock traffic away from Felixstowe.

Felixstowe needs diversification in its commerce, SCDC will do the traders of this town no favours by progressing with a scheme which will prevent tourists and other visitors from entering the town because of congestion on the Dock-Spur Round-about, who will be unable to find places to park when in the town and will have difficulty leaving the town. If you wish the town to be nothing but a dormitory for the port then using site 4 should be your choice!!

Many of our members would not be living in this town today if the houses had not been built on the west side, so we are not against more houses, but they should be built in an appropriate place, one which does not prove detrimental to the town and those who will be purchasing the new homes.

We ask you to dismiss area 4 and consider a site to the west beyond Trimley St Martin.

Yours faithfully,

Barry Farr.
Hon. Chairman.