Saxmundham

Our recent public meeting on housing – reporting your views

Our warm thanks to the (around 70) residents who took part our public meeting held on 27^th June to discuss Housing & the Future of Saxmundham.  You can click here to find two notes of the meeting, a record of the key points made by those attending.

You will find below a link our notes of the meeting.  The first is the record of the report-backs from each table following discussion, the second is a word-for-word typed up copy of what was written on the yellow sheets of paper from each table.  We also summarise, below, some key “take-away” points of possible consensus from the meeting.

NP public meeting_ Housing 27.06.18 LJ

Public Meeting on Housing 27 June – notes from yellow sheets

And here are some broad “take-away” conclusions:

• Yes, recognize reality that town will grow over next 2 decades – we should look at ranges of numbers of new dwellings
• No to the “Greater Sax” option ( which imagined over 1000 new homes]
• Possibly yes, for the range 500 / 600 to 800 new dwellings by 20-36,
• But all depends on decent infrastructure, notably road connections, plus medical, education facilities
• People want guarantees on infrastructure as many are extremely mistrustful
• New development needs to benefit town centre
•  Town centre / High Street urgently needs regeneration
• Need for more information on demographics, CIL
• Need for advice on water, sewage, utilities re possible new development sites
• Need to hear more young people’s voices

The Steering Group is due to meet on 23^rd July to discuss all these points, including a response to the District Council at this stage.  For our part, while the Steering Group (SG) is not yet in a position to put forward near-final proposals for the scale and main locations of future housing development, as chair and vice-chairs of the SG, we have serious concern that the present text focuses on a single proposal, which appears to remove any real local choice in relation to location.