Our proposals

Hopkins Homes have submitted a full planning application to Babergh Mid-Suffolk District Council for 127 high-quality homes, public open space and associated infrastructure. Hopkins Homes’ vision for the future of the low-grade agricultural land at the site includes new homes aligned to local needs, including affordable dwellings, public open space and the provision of a new car park to serve the Church and Nursery.

The site

The site is allocated in part within the emerging Local Plan of Babergh and Mid-Suffolk and currently forms uncultivated agricultural land. The Grade II* Listed Church of St Michael the Archangel and associated Lych Gate lie just beyond the site to the south, forming key heritage assets which the proposals seek to ensure are maintained and respected.

Land adjacent to the site to the south of Brantham village is designated as an AONB and SSSI. The design of the proposed development seeks to maintain the character of the adjacent AONB, through transitioning looser forms of development to the south of the site, and open space provision. The site itself is of limited ecological value and enhancements will be incorporated within the scheme to secure a net biodiversity gain.

The submitted scheme

Hopkins Homes have submitted a full application for 127 high-quality homes on land south of Ipswich Road. The final scheme will deliver a mixture of housing types and tensures, including properties for affordable rent and shared owernship, and a broad range of open market homes.

In response to the existing parking pressures on Church Lane, the scheme includes the provision of a 30-space car park to serve the Church and Nursery. This will deliver much needed parking spaces for both the Church and Nursery. There is a single vehiclular access proposed into the site from the A137. The vehicular access will have a visibility splay of 2.4m by 90m. The access location has considered the existing bus stop layby proivsion and access roads on the opposite side of the road.

The proposals for construction of an offsite footway on the south side of the A137 Ipswich Road, which will provide a connection from the development to the existing footway to the West of School Lane. This will provide a coninuous footway to the village and primary school. The development will provide a crossing facility on the A137 Ipswich Road adjacent to the development, which will enable pedestrians to safely reach the bus stop on the north side of the road.

Hopkins Homes have included sustainable drainage measures in the proposals and these will be designed to cope with a one in one-hundred-year storm. This will include an allowance for climate change. A mixture of infiltration drainage solutions will be used on site, to ensure the best sustainability across the site. These will include swales, permeable paving on drive ways and infiltration basins. Additional SuDS features are under review and will be incorporated into the design where feasible.

New landscaping is proposed as part of the development which will include the planting of new trees and enhancing hedgerows. A children’s play ares will also be delivered in the centre of the development for both new and existing residents to enjoy.