Conservatives voted against Labour controlled Ipswich Borough Council’s infrastructure delivery plan for the Ipswich Garden Suburb (northern fringe).
The purpose of the document was meant to set the scope of infrastructure which needs to be provided to support the quantity of housing planned, and address the various infrastructure needs which are essential, including schools, highway improvements, bridges and a country park.
Whilst we recognise and accept the need the new housing in Ipswich, this should not be forced on north Ipswich without a commitment from developers and the council to deliver the infrastructure residents are telling us that is needed, to avoid making their lives a misery.
Sadly the document was a lost opportunity because it completely lacked any detail on getting developers to deliver what we require, a serious scarcity of infrastructure detail around transport and sewage. There was no mention of allowing space for a northern relief road which Conservative MP Ben Gummer has been campaigning for in the last couple of years and longer, and for which Suffolk County Council has acknowledged the need for this and has put forward some initial routing suggestions.
Conservatives would re-write the infrastructure plan to bring forward the housing development with the appropriate road and other improvements. We don’t want to see north Ipswich traffic becoming worse, but sadly the plan was passed by Labour who have most councillors on the Borough, and completely ignored the concerns of our residents which we were raising.