THE future of a much-loved house and park has taken another twist following an application to get it listed by English Heritage.
The Sudbury Society has applied to have Belle Vue House protected from possible demolition or redevelopment and is currently waiting for a response to its request.
The future of the site has caused strong reaction from many people, with angry resi
dents marching in Sudbury last month protesting against moves to sell off part of the park.
Babergh District Council's strategy committee decided to put parts of Belle Vue Park, which is in the centre of Sudbury, up for sale last month.
It claims only a small part of the green would be affected, but residents fear the move could pave the way for the entire park being lost.
Derelict land on the council-owned site will be offered to the Hardwicke House GP practice and, in a separate development on the same site, Belle Vue House is expected to be offered in a land-swap deal with developers McCarthy & Stone, which wants to build retirement homes there.
Sudbury Society chairman Nick Hallidie said: "What we are trying to say is that it is an historic building and we don't have many historic-style period buildings in Sudbury. We hope a way of saving it would be to get it listed.
"There has been a very strong reaction from a lot of people that it might be demolished. I think we are really expressing the feelings of a lot of people in Sudbury who don't want to see a mess made one of the town's most popular buildings.
"We are trying to find out, once an application for listing has been made to English Heritage, whether the house is safe while the application is being considered.
"We are rather hoping just by merely popping the application for listing in the post, things will have to wait until that is over before anything goes ahead."
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