Controversial plans to create a £2 million enterprise hub in a Suffolk seaside town are to be discussed in a council meeting on Monday.
Controversial plans to create a £2 million enterprise hub in a Suffolk seaside town are to be discussed at a public meeting on Monday.
The project in Southwold, which will redevelop the site on the corner of Blyth Road and Station Road, will create up to 90 new jobs, planners have been told.
However, business owners in Station Road strongly object to the proposals as they face removal from their properties as the buildings are demolished.
They say they were assured their businesses would be relocated, but argue the council has failed to keep its promise.
A public meeting to discuss the fiercely-debated matter of the enterprise hub is to be held on Monday, 11th November from 6pm at Southwold Arts Centre in Cumberland Road.
Southwold Town Council say the meeting will be "an opportunity to get the facts first hand".
However, Southwold town mayor Ian Bradbury said tenants of the businesses affected are on tenancy at will agreements, and the council will look to relocate them in the future.
Mr Bradbury said: "No work is going to happen until June 2020. We will have time to try to accommodate the businesses affected, if at all possible."
The Southwold Enterprise Hub project, originally submitted by the town council, was originally green-lit in September 2018 by district councillors.
Proposals include constructing a new two-storey building in Southwold in place of the properties currently occupying the site on the corner of Blyth Road and Station Road.
The project is anticipated to cost around £2 million, and is being partly-funded through a grant of nearly £1 million of taxpayer money from the Coastal Communities Fund.
However, tenants from businesses affected have already been served notice - with no plans in place for relocation.
Liberal Democrat town councillor David Beavan said: "A year ago, Southwold Town Council started planning for a mixed-use redevelopment, and said they would look after existing tenants - a shop, two garages and two cycle hire and repair units.
"The council served notice on tenants to leave a week ago. They had been promised new leases for years, but clearly there was no intention to do so."
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