ipswich.gov.uk

Under 'CS20: Key Transport Proposals' the following motor vehicle transport issues are identified:
1) Highway capacity in the town centre, particularly within the Star Lane area/Gyratory system;
2) Central east-west movement;
3) Movements within and around the north of Ipswich; and
4) Access by heavy vehicles to Ipswich Port.
None of these will be resolved by building a Northern Bypass because a road built out beyond Westerfield is too far away. No road user will drive out nearly to Witnesham, travel around the 'ring road' and then back in to their destination in North, West or East Ipswich. Likewise, a Northern Bypass will not take any road users out of the Star Lane area of the town centre on any normal day nor assist HGVs drivers getting into town to reach Ipswich docks. Much more beneficial would be a version of an 'East Bank' Town Centre Relief Road/Bypass (see my representation for 'CS20 8.213) and, if the Ipswich 'Garden Suburb' is to be built, a new road from Valley Road/Tuddenham Road through the 'Garden Suburb' linking directly with Westerfield road, Henley road and the A14 interchange at Bury road (possibly passing in the vicinity of the old Indoor Cricket Centre and then adjacent to Whitton Sports Centre).
The only motor vehicle transport issue raised that may potentially benefit from a Northern Bypass is the 'capacity of the A14, particularly around the Orwell Bridge'. This is only a problem on a handful of occasions during a year when an incident closes part of the A14 and this cannot alone justify the building of a Northern Bypass. Any town or city experiences traffic congestion if a local 'A' road or Motorway is closed but this cannot be alleviated by circulating all major habitations with bypasses and Ipswich is no more of a special case than anywhere else (no calls being made for an Eastern Bypass for Colchester or a Southern Bypass for Cambridge in case of problems on the A12 or A14 in their locality).
When a Northern Bypass was first looked at a number of years ago no suitable route could be found. Nothing has changed and such a road has the potential to blight a number of quiet villages to the North of Ipswich, homes in the Humber Doucy Lane area of Ipswich and the wonderful environment of the Fynn Valley. This is some of Suffolk's finest countryside where hundreds of people a week get away from it all for a few hours to walk, cycle and explore nature. A major road through any part of the Fynn Valley accompanied by the usual urban sprawl strikes me as being an environmental disaster for the area and cuts off Ipswich's northern green lung (imagine the Ransomes Europark/Warren Heath run transplanted to near Tuddenham St Martin, Playford and/or Grundisburgh). In addition, the village of Westerfield would be doubly blighted with Ipswich Garden Suburb houses built up to its southern boundary and being hemmed in to the north by such a new road.
If the Council considers that an "East Bank Link Road is unlikely to be deliverable over the plan period because public funding is not available..." (8.214) then why is a Northern Bypass being considered as a possibility with the cost and time frame likely to be far greater?