The former Defiant public house, 22 Stoke Street. This is a 17th-18th century building refronted by Cattermole and Eade in the mid-1860s with interesting trapezoid (coffin) shaped windows. It has been shut for at least five years, and despite various approved proposals it remains untouched and deteriorating. The latest idea is to convert the ground floor into two two-bedroom flats and the first floor into a four-bed HMO. The exterior will be largely unchanged. The regulations concerning HMOs limit the number in any given street (the Defiant is in Stoke Street – not Burrell Road).

2 Coytes Gardens. The latest iteration returns to three flats on floors one, two and three; the ground floor is returned to a car, cycle and bin space. The exterior design is good and fits well with its modern next-door neighbour.

Former Paul’s office building, Key Street. This proposal is to convert only the first floor of the northern, unlisted, wing of the complex. Under class ‘O’, it is a permitted development with certain limitations; it must also conform to flood risks – it is in flood zone 2, so only the first floor is habitable and egress must be provided outside the flood risk zone to the north. The development does not interfere with either the listed building to the north nor to the old Jewish Cemetery.

6 Westerfield Road and 10 Parkside Avenue. Thornbank Nursing Home has moved to Henley Gate so the three buildings can revert to their original Victorian function as three five-bedroom houses. Modern excrescences (lift tower and extension will go) and a new arch to the middle house constructed. At the rear, the ground floor will be faced in Corten steel – unusual in this setting – with modern kitchens and bifold doors to the reduced (see next item) gardens.

Land between 15c and 17 Constable Road. Two modern houses, again with Corten steel on the facades, in what are the gardens of Thornbank. Parking, but no garages. These two developments bring five windfall dwellings with 25 bedrooms.

34-54 Upper Orwell Street. The development of a terraced row of nine three-bedroomed three-storied houses was granted permission. The houses are well designed by Stan Beanland but it is a short-term solution to a longstanding problem. We should only comment on what is in front of us but it would surely have been better to await the purchase of number 36 and to negotiate the use of a piece of IBC-owned land north of number 34. Then the whole length of the site would have had one developer and, with a little less greed, the ground plan could have been for a lesser number of slightly shallower houses to allow more privacy from the car park, more amenity space and more room for bins and bikes. This would then have avoided the need to put a bin storage cupboard on the front of each property.

26 Warrington Road. It’s always been a mystery why a previous owner was allowed to put a garage in the front room of this red brick double-fronted, 1890s detached house on the east side of the street. Thankfully, the new owner is going to rectify the indignity.

Land opposite 289-299 Henley Road (the most northerly portion of the Ipswich Garden Suburb next to Sparrowes Farm). Permission has been granted to build 28 houses on this site, despite reservations concerning the design and layout as well as the landscaping and tree management. However, these can be dealt with at the Reserved Matters stage in the future.

Land east of Henley Road and north of the railway. This is the detailed application by Crest Nicholson for the Ipswich Garden Suburb (IGS) Country Park. A few points from Ms Rosemary Claxton’s presentation – the Borough officer whose sole job it is to deal with the IGS – show that it will be a great addition to our green spaces. Some short lengths of hedge will be lost, cut-throughs for cycle/pedestrian paths. These paths will be low-lit, 3 metres wide tarmac, one south-north, a continuation of the Fonnereau Way and one west-east from Henley Road to Westerfield station. In addition there will be pedestrian-only paths, including a 2.75 km circular walk on grass and compressed gravel. There will be areas of planting, shrubs and large deciduous trees. They are aware of the existence of elm trees and hedgerows and will do their very best to retain them. The park will be managed by IBC’s Parks Department and the rights of way by Suffolk County Council.

The proposals were received with acclamation by the committee and passed unanimously. Let us hope Crest’s good intentions do not flounder on their usual altar of engineered cost savings.

 

Appeals

These appeals have been won: there will be no large distracting disfiguring digital advertisement panels (giant TVs) in the garages at the Bramford Road/ Chevalier Street junction, nor at the Shell garage on London Road opposite Sainsbury’s. However, the inspector accepted that the 15 metre 5G monopole close to the railway bridge on Albion Hill, Woodbridge Road would not be an imposition.

 

Ipswich Local Plan 2018-2036. The Planning Inspectors’ report of their review completed eighteen months ago has been published. The two inspectors agree that Ipswich Borough Council has fulfilled its Duty to Cooperate with adjoining Local Planning Authorities on many matters and policies; this was the subject of marked criticism in the inspector’s report on the Examination in Public. At the request of IBC there have been many major modifications to the wording to ensure effectiveness and clarity. There are no major policy changes.

The plan, as accepted, states that 8,280 new dwellings will be constructed by 2036; 3,250 on the Ipswich Garden Suburb and 650 (with East Suffolk Council) north-east of Humber Doucy Lane. Figures show that windfall sites are coming in at 105 dwellings a year compared with an expected 50; in the last three years there have been 971 completions compared with an expected 900. This does mean that IBC can say that it has sufficient land and policies and allocated sites for dwellings. Developers will no longer be able to say, ‘you must grant permission to us to build because you haven't got a sufficient land supply’.

If you wish to read more – it's only a hundred pages – here’s the link.

 

Land to south of railway and east of Westerfield Road. The site is bounded to the south by Bromeswell Road, to the east by Tuddenham, Road, to the north by Westerfield Station and the railway and to the west by Westerfield Road. It surrounds Red House Farm on three sides but does not include it.

I shall report more fully on this large application in due course.

Mike Cook

See also Mike’s report on the Henley Gate Community Liaison Group meetings, page 14. –Ed

Next article