Developers submit 300 sites for local plan review

Landowners and developers have put forward over 300 sites that could be considered for new homes to be built as part of an authority's local plan.

West Suffolk Council called at the start of the year for sites to be submitted in order to put together its strategy.

Sites put forward for consideration include areas for housing and employment and green infrastructure, such as parks, playing fields, allotments and woodland.

Frank Stennett, an independent councillor and cabinet member for planning at West Suffolk Council, said: "We are still at a very early stage in the preparation of the next local plan. No decisions have been made on any sites."

Stennett added: "We are listening to residents and there will be a public consultation and engagement next year and in 2028, in which we will be encouraging everyone in west Suffolk to have their say."

The council's local plan has to allocate land for about 1,200 homes a year to meet the government's local housing need assessment.

Following government guidance, the council said it would carry out an initial assessment on all 328 sites to identify which were potentially suitable, available and deliverable in the timescales set out in its local plan.

The initial assessments will be published by the council in the autumn, as part of a Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment.

No decisions on allocations for the local plan will be made at this stage, the council added.

Public consultation and engagement were due to take place in the middle of next year.

Then there would be a further stage of public consultation, which is currently scheduled to take place in 2028, on a draft version of the new West Suffolk Local Plan.

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