A NEW junction on the A12 must be built before up to 1,000 homes are added to a village, a meeting heard.

Councillors agreed Feering should be allocated as a strategic growth area as part of the Local Plan.

The at Inworth Road would include employment opportunities, schools, health facilities, shopping, and a traveller site.

However planning officers said a new A12 junction would have to be built for it to be viable.

They said: “Officers are proposing modifications to the policy to require an all movements junction on the A12 to support this development, which has been shown to be essential to accommodate the full development of this site.

“This is a requirement to make the policy acceptable, otherwise impact on the local highway network will be severe.”

As an all movement junction is needed, it was proposed the deliv- ery of the housing scheme would be moved back.

Planning officers said: “Significant completions on site will not be acceptable until the new junction is available.

“As such the trajectory will be revised to predict that new homes will not be completed on site until 2025/2026.”

There were concerns about the village doubling in size.

Graham Butland, council leader, said: “We all agree infrastructure be- fore development is key, it’s absolutely essential.

“We have a housing crisis in this country and we need more houses, but when people say ‘not here’ the question I ask is, but where?

“There will be a problem for us if we were to take this out completely.”