by Joe Jeffrey
Gravel pit looks set to be turned into touring caravan park offering visitors and locals the chance to escape to the great outdoors
Plans to convert an old gravel pit on the edge of Bury St Edmunds into public lakes and touring caravanning facilities have been drafted.
The plans for Park Farm, located between Fornham St Martin and Ingham, would see the former quarry converted into a caravan park with farm house, fishing lakes, bike routes, with other facilities also introduced.
Now, St Edmundsbury Borough Council will be holding a public consultation on the future of the site, with high hopes the proposed plans get the go ahead.
The council’s report states: “It is essential that the applicants need to create a ‘destination’. Park Farm must be sustainable and any permissions granted must include the ability to cater for that need.”
Such a development, providing the public access to country parkland, will help strengthen efforts to meet a need for public green spaces in the borough, which the council’s local plan identified as lacking.
Part of the project could also see cycle and footpath access to Park Farm, without using the existing main road links.
The report continued: “These links could become part of a Brecks CAReFree initiative, encouraging car transport alternatives in the Brecks region. This would assist in linking the villages of Timworth, Culford, and Ingham to the Fornhams and Bury without the need to walk or cycle on the A134 or B1106.”
Consultation on the project will run until 16 November.
