Residents hit out at plans for new homes over new school

Residents in Elmswell are giving their backing over plans for a new school and not additional homes on a parcel of land in the village.

Many say educating young people takes priority over the new homes after a series of developments have and are continuing to take place in the community.

Their comments came after suffolkvillage.info last week told of the parish council having discussions regarding the possibility of using land at School Road/Church Road (including the maze) together with the area adjacent to Old Schools Court to house a new primary school with community recreation space and woodland.

However, it would appear that an alternative proposal was passed by Mid Suffolk District Council earlier this month to proceed with 50 new homes instead of the school.

Now Wesley Hall, in School Road, is to be the venue for a consultation about the plans this coming on Thursday, November 17,  between 2pm and 7.30pm.

Linda Dunce said: “Surely it’s a no go-er … children need education for their part in the world. You just have to go to Elmswell School at 3pm  to see what is needed. Cars parked right up to New Road corner, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a serious accident.

“With the amount of houses going up in Elmswell at the moment the school will not be able to cater for all the children. So where will they be going? Woolpit: I shouldn’t think so as they have plenty of land being taken up by housing. Doctors, being another issue as well as the pharmacy. Both can hardly cope now let alone with the extra housing.

And Denise Lawrence added: “It has to be a much-needed school, providing most parents walk their children to and from school.”

Meanwhile, Rodney Crew hit out at the district councils saying that they seem to have “no regard for local councils who represent their inhabitants.”

He said: “They consistently overrule local views and needs. It is an absolute disgrace that they have submerged Elmswell with a plethora of new developments covering huge amounts of agricultural green space. This is creating a complete imbalance of population and traffic to the existing infrastructure and facilities let alone the visual impact and safety issues.

“Now we have this short-dated underhand proposal to deny residents the opportunity to have a much needed new school in the middle of ongoing discussions and to build yet more houses. What has happened to our democracy and competent planning authority.”