ipswich.gov.uk

Both myself and my wife attended a meeting in Bramford last night regarding this proposed development, while neither of us now live in the village, we both run separate businesses at the Riverhill business site directly opposite so have a direct interest in this development.

Unless we had been made aware of this development by local people we would have been unaware of the proposal, as business owners directly opposite this is very disappointing.

From our point of view the major concern is the impact on not only our business, but others that border the site. A gentleman from Clarice House made it quite clear that his business is unlikely to survive the impact of a gypsy site next door and he considers that the sight will blight the area Should they close it will mean the loss of 49 jobs and make the property unsaleable. He indicated that many members have already told him they will stop membership if the development takes place. My wife is a member and often visits when we finish work. Usually she will walk across the road and back afterwards, in the winter this will be in the dark, but even in daylight she has said she would not make such a walk and would be unlikely to continue her membership.

The business she runs regularly includes workshops some of which are in the evenings. These are mostly attended by women on their own and I have no doubt the gypsy site would impact on their willingness to attend, especially on dark evenings.

Any impact of this type would place the site for both our businesses in jeopardy and could easily result in closure or relocation. We do support the local shops, while I suspect our landlord would also suffer with trying to relet the premises we use.

There were two other points raised last night which I feel require clarification.

This is the only site that is being proposed, despite "many others being looked at" we were told, but it was very disappointing that the councillors seemed to have no idea where these were, or why they had been discounted. The alternatives and the reasons for discounting these should be widely available. I was certainly left with the impression that this site was deemed suitable as it in a far corner of Ipswich and could be used as a dumping ground as far out of sight as possible.

The site is dangerous for access, while placing young children in accommodation next door to the A14 with easy access is just asking for an accident. Is this a price that is willing to be paid again with this proposal?

I also understand from the meeting last night the site is deemed unsuitable for housing due to noise pollution from the A14, if this site is not suitable for housing because of noise pollution, why should it be suitable for gypsy sites, I am no great defender of gypsies, but surely if a site is provided for them they should be given the same consideration about facilities as anyone else in the community, dumping them in a second class site it is obvious nobody else wants, just leads to more issues about them being treated as second class citizens, hardly helpful for any integration policy.