Comment

Representation ID: 24793

Received: 23/09/2017

Respondent: Mr Philip Pethybridge

Reduce the town centre in Ipswich - no need for the size it is. The world has moved on.

Comment

Representation ID: 24908

Received: 27/10/2017

Respondent: Historic England

The town centres in Ipswich and Suffolk Coastal are historic and contain significant concentrations of designated heritage assets. Retailing is changing and that has an impact on the buildings housing them, many of them historic. Each centre is different but consideration needs to be made of whether town centres are sustainable as currently constituted, the usages for buildings are correctly identified and they are adequately protected from harmful change of use or conversion. A planned approach to reinforcing the importance of the town centres as a sustainable location, and consideration of appropriate, alternative or additional uses which will provide a strong future for the buildings, is key. A further consideration is the retention of original/historic or significant shopfronts. A development management policy should be in place to manage their change successfully.

Comment

Representation ID: 25292

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Conservative Group

The group believes in a general shift of the focus of Ipswich Town Centre from its current east/west axis to more of a north/south axis. The edges of the current town centre (Carr St & Westgate St) are perfect examples where a change of usage should be considered. Many of the retail units are either empty or filled with temporary shops and those retail units that are successful could easily be relocated to other areas. We could introduce more town centre living and then concentrate the retail and leisure offering from the current town centre towards the waterfront. Ipswich is not big enough to be able to develop the area towards the waterfront whilst still attempting to retain the same length of high street running through the centre.