I recently visited the Ipswich Garden Suburb (IGS) to see progress on the country park. Formerly known as the Northern Fringe, this development will stretch from Henley Road in the west to Tuddenham Road in the east.

There will be between 3,000 and 3,500 homes, which will add about 10,000 people to the Ipswich population.

The new Country Park will provide recreation and enjoyment for residents, including over 2.7km of walking and cycling routes. It is key to enhancing biodiversity across the site.

The country park will deliver significant open space for use by new and existing residents of the IGS as well as the wider Ipswich community.

The visitor centre is part of the Henley Gate development, which is the first part of the IGS to be developed. The visitor centre will be a community asset with a reception area, exhibition space, community space, kitchen, café, public toilets, and changing rooms. It will also have an office and mess room for the rangers who will maintain the park.

It has timber walls with large areas of glazing and decking which should allow visitors to sit outside in fine weather. Hardier visitors will be able to sit out in all weathers!

There was a destination playground being put in while I was there. “Destination” just means it’s a bigger one that caters for a wider catchment – the Holywells Park playground is a destination. It certainly looks good and includes play equipment for children with disabilities.

Once the country park and the visitor centre are completed, the site will be taken over by Ipswich Borough Council (IBC) which will manage the country park and playground as part of its parks department.

The park area has pounded gravel paths to allow universal access. I think this is vital these days. It allows cycles to be ridden and buggies to be pushed with ease. I am always pleased to see extended family groups using it together as young children are catered for as well as the older generation, including those with wheelchairs or motability scooters. The paths go round some water pools, which are part of the drainage scheme, and will extend to provide walking routes across the whole country park. The park is planned to be 60 acres stretching from Lower Road, Westerfield to the railway line.

IBC has worked hard to bring £10million of Housing Infrastructure Fund money to cover the cost of the country park and two railway bridges.

The bridges were put in place over the Christmas holidays in 2022. Frustratingly, they still need a bit of work before being approved for use by Network Rail.

The larger of the two bridges, nearer Henley Road, is designed to carry buses and emergency vehicles - and general traffic during off-peak periods.

The other bridge will be for pedestrians and cyclists only. It will be installed nearer Westerfield station and follows the line of the Fonnereau Way long-distance path, which starts in central Ipswich. These bridges are aimed at encouraging local residents to leave their cars at home. An early condition was provision of super-fast broadband for the site, which should also encourage working at home.

One of the five priorities of Labour run Ipswich is “Meeting the housing needs of our community”. Keir Starmer has announced the building of 1.5 million new homes over five years, with a desire to increase the number of owner-occupiers from 65% to 70%. These local and national priorities seem to dove-tail nicely. Getting Britain building again is critical for economic growth, which will enable us to permanently escape the cost-of-living crisis and build a better Britain.