Villagers take Carlton Colville homes row to Westminster

Residents in Ullswater, Carlton Colville, near Lowestoft, have made a complaint because lorries do not fit down the narrow residential street which is being used to access a building site.

HAYLEY MACE

09 March 2010

Villagers who objected to plans to build 100 homes on the outskirts of Lowestoft have taken their official complaint to Westminster.

Last summer, people living in Ullswater in Carlton Colville, near Lowestoft, sent an official complaint to the local government ombudsman about the way in which Waveney District Council made the decision to grant planning permission for the 70 houses and 30 flats being built by Persimmon Homes.

Now Waveney MP Bob Blizzard has met the ombudsman Felix Di Netimah at the House of Commons to back the complaints being made by many of the people living along the narrow residential street which is being used to access the building site.

Mr Blizzard said: "The situation the residents are facing is unacceptable. This substandard access should never have been allowed by Waveney's planning committee."

A spokesman for Waveney District Council said: "The site is an allocated residential site and therefore the proposal was in accordance with the council's development plan. All proper consultation took place, including with the Highways Depart-ment who also raised no objections, and these responses were set out in the written report to the planning committee. Any residents who purchased in Ullswater will have been fully aware of the additional, forthcoming development."

Andrew Fuller, managing director at Persimmon Homes Anglia, said: "We have been granted planning consent for a temporary construction traffic hall road, which we will voluntarily build once the on-site roads have been completed. This should take place in the spring and will connect our development to Swallowfields Road, which will alleviate the level of construction traffic to Ullswater by up to 50pc."

The local government ombudsman is expected to make his decision on the complaint later in the spring.