Future development in Beccles is under the spotlight with work beginning on the first town plan.

Residents were sent questionnaires in March and local people were asked to give their views about the town and their priorities for the future.

Town clerk Claire Boyne said the next stage would be to collate the responses and that further consultation events were likely to be organised.

She said: 'We are trying to produce a town plan for Beccles. The first stage is to consult with the public to get their views on what the priorities are for the town, and how they feel about the town - what is good and what is bad.

'We sent out questionnaires in March to all householders asking people to give us their views to help us with the plan.

'We are trying to cover all the services that are delivered in Beccles and people were asked if they had any suggestions for improvements.

'It was a very useful exercise. A lot of people have a lot of ideas about what can be done with the town.

'The next stage is to collate all the questionnaires and comments and we will probably have some consultation events further down the line.'

The council received more than 200 responses from local people.

Beccles mayor Brian Taylor said: 'We were very pleased with the responses. There are some excellent ones which really told us what we should be looking at.'

To encourage people to complete the questionnaire a prize draw was held.

Edward Lugmayer, from Borough End, Beccles, was the winner of a �25 Tesco gift voucher.

He said: 'Beccles is a fine town. I have lived here for 50 odd years. It is very rare you find somewhere where you go out in the morning and a complete stranger will say good morning to you.

'The town is close to my heart. It is the people that make the town more than anything.'