Plans for almost 500 homes and a new relief road to the west of Bury St Edmunds are facing further criticism as the town council has recommended refusal.

Applicant Pigeon (Bury West) Limited first submitted proposals for 485 homes on land off Newmarket Road in 2019.

But concerns were raised around the access roads, which included roundabout access onto Newmarket Road and a part relief road onto Fornham Lane, as well as the green buffer and the total number of homes included.

In a new application before West Suffolk Council, the applicant is once again seeking permission for up to 485 two and three storey homes of various sizes and tenures, but has made changes to the planned relief road including roundabout site access on Newmarket Road and Westley Road, as well as a new priority junction from the relief road onto Hill Road. 

In a statement submitted to West Suffolk Council last week, Bury St Edmunds Town Council said, based on current information, the application should be refused.

The statement said the council believes insufficient information has been provided regarding the application, and called for wider public consultation. 

This comes after more than 20 comments from residents on the neighbouring Westley Estate objecting to the plans were submitted to West Suffolk Council, many of which have raised noise and traffic concerns, as well as worries for wildlife on the currently disused plot.

One Ridley Road resident said: "The health, education, policing and social care systems etc are already heavily overburdened in Bury St Edmunds, adding an additional 485 families to the existing problems is just going to make things a whole lot worse."

A resident of Greene Road said: "I don't believe that destruction of even more natural land is the best decision to be made here when there are various plots of lands in Bury that are already built up and falling apart, abandoned."

The scheme is on land allocated for residential development.