Bury St Edmunds residents have a say on Greene King proposals to build a £40 million new brewery on Suffolk Park

Bury St Edmunds residents have been having their say about Greene King’s plans for a £40 million new brewery in the town.

Greene King staff, planning and travelling consultants are on Bury market today as part of the public consultation into the plans to build a new brewery on Suffolk Park.

Maureen and Michael Jones, who spent time talking to the consultation team this morning, said they thought the plans were ‘excellent’.

Maureen said: “We take an interest as we live near there. I’m pleased to see it will all be together (brewery and distribution).

“Greene King is part of our heritage and it is important to keep it going here in Bury.”

Michael said: “My concern is the old building – it is a feature of the town – but the new location will be helpful for distribution as rather than coming in and out of town lorries can go straight from the new site to the A14.”

Beverley Price, who lives on the Moreton Hall estate, said: “My main concern is the volume of traffic. I live near Bedingfeld Way and the number of HGVs using the road is already terrible. That road was never meant to be for that number of large vehicles, so I asked whether the Greene King lorries would be using the other junction of the A14, taking them away from houses.

“I feel quite reassured but will wait to see what happens when it actually opens as I worry drivers will just follow their satnavs. Where we live you can’t open your bedroom windows at night when it’s hot due to the noise… currently it sounds like thunder 24 hours a day from the constant HGVs driving past.”

Jessica Pratt, transport consultant, was on today’s consultation stand and also attended a Moreton Hall resident consultation event last night.

She said HGVs using the estate had been a concern raised by many.

“We are able to say we are going to direct drivers to junction 45 (Rookery crossroads). Everyone seemed very relieved to hear drivers would be directed to that junction rather than junction 44 (Sainsbury’s),” she said.

Another Bury resident, who lives near the brewery, said: “So far, what I think is it is very good – it’s good for the town. My main concern was water, but they said the new brewery will use less water so overall: tick, tick, tick.”

Tim Preston, Greene King brewing and distribution director, said the overall reaction had been positive.

“The biggest concern from last night’s event and today has been about transport on to the Moreton Hall estate, in particular around the congestion at the Sainsbury’s A14 junction,” he said.

“We anticipated and recognised this as a point of concern. What we’re able to mandate to our drivers is the route they take, so we’re confident we won’t be adding to the congestion.

“We haven’t had anybody question the decision (to build a new brewery in Bury) at all. Everyone has understood the age of the current brewery and what that means, and understands that we had choices about where we built it and that staying within the town of Bury is only good news for Bury and the local economy.”

Tim said one of the big challenges of moving to a new brewery would be to ensure the beer tasted the same.

“We are certainly not underestimating that,” he said. “We will put a lot of effort into ensuring our customers can’t tell the difference.”

Brewing would continue at the existing Westgate Brewery until the new brewery – which would be located alongside Greene King’s new distribution centre – was complete, in about 2027.

A consultation on the proposals started on Wednesday, when details were published at www.greenekingconsultation.co.uk, with online feedback invited.

In addition to online feedback and today’s public drop-in, a live webinar event will take place tomorrow at 6pm – register to attend through the project website.

The public consultation runs until May 29.