Residents to be allowed inside Royal Navy warship

Residents will be allowed inside a Royal Navy warship following a decision to affiliate the vessel with a town.

Ipswich borough councillors decided on Wednesday to accept the affiliation of HMS Trumpeter, one of the Royal Navy's 16 Archer-class patrol vessels.

The current warship, commissioned in 1988, regularly contributes to UK and NATO exercises as well as operations in territorial waters.

Alasdair Ross, a soldier turned councillor with responsibility for housing, said it was a "great honour" to support the council's affiliation proposals.

"It's important as a council for a large town, and we're still a very active port, that we have a link to the Royal Navy, and we have a link to them even though we're not a naval town," he said.

"There aren't that many ships in the Royal Navy, so we're happy [to be affiliated] with HMS Trumpeter, and it can come into the dock so people in Ipswich will be able to go on it and visit."

HMS Trumpeter is small enough to enter the wet dock, having previously been based in Ipswich, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It is expected to be visible and accessible to the public when docked.

The borough was once affiliated with HMS Quorn, but this was lost when the ship was decommissioned in 2017.

The proposals were supported unanimously by councillors.

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