4.12.1. Wickhambrook is a village located in the southern part of the district 16 kilometres from Haverhill and Newmarket and 18 kilometres from Bury St Edmunds. It has a population of 1,286 (2019 mid-year estimate). Wickhambrook is designated as a local service centre with a range of services including a primary school, GP Surgery, a public house, recreation facilities and convenience food store and post

4.12.2. The parish council have embarked on the process of preparing a neighbourhood plan. The neighbourhood plan area was designated by West Suffolk Council on 1 October 2021.

Constraints and opportunities

• Wickhambrook comprises of a core village area surrounded by a number of hamlets and small groups of dwellings to the north-west, south and east. There is a need to prevent coalescence of these historic hamlets to preserve the character of Wickhambrook.
• The landscape character assessment notes that the village lies within the Glem and Wickhambrook Farmlands character area, comprising of undulating ancient farmlands.
• The topography of the area creates long views out of the village. Land to the north-west and to the east of the settlement is on higher ground where there is a risk that large scale growth would be prominent in the landscape.
• The village green to the south-east of the village acts as an entrance to Wickhambrook, which forms a key feature of the village and should be protected.
• Flood zones 2 and 3 run adjacent to the eastern fringes of Thorns and Meeting Green which may potentially be a constraint to There is occasional localised surface water flooding within the village.
• Bus services are less frequent than hourly or operate during limited times.
• There is a conservation area at Wickham Street to the south-east of the main settlement.
• The roads are narrow in places and lack footpaths and safe pedestrian routes.

Preferred allocations

4.12.3. One new site is proposed as a preferred sites for mixed use development in Wickhambrook providing an indicative capacity of 40 dwellings, with the opportunity for community facilities or retail and/or employment to be explored and determined through a site development brief.

4.12.4. The level of development proposed is influenced by the overall housing requirement and the settlement strategy. This determines the distribution of development across the district as well as the existing environmental and physical constraints and the overall capacity for growth in the settlement. Further information on how housing numbers have been derived can be seen in part one of the local plan.

4.12.5. Further information on alternative site options considered but not taken forward can be seen in the table of omission sites in appendix B.

4.12.6. Information on infrastructure can be seen in the draft infrastructure delivery plan (IDP) (2022) which sets out baseline data for each settlement.

Wickhambrook settlement constraints map

Wickhambrook preferred allocations map