EAST BERGHOLT PARISH COUNCIL CHAIRS ANNUAL REPORT
FOR YEAR 2025/2026

Unitary Councils in Suffolk
The biggest event in 2025/26 that will affect our future village is the government’s decision to
create one Mayor for Norfolk & Suffolk and to merge current county and district councils to
create unitary councils. The Parish Council has been active throughout this period of
consultation trying to ensure that local voices are heard and that local representation remains
effective.

The region Mayoral decision was made by government and the new region is expected to start
in 2027, managing regional services such as police, health, and major infrastructure.

Local services, such as education, social services, local highways, libraries, housing, waste
management, planning, etc will be the responsibility of one unitary authority. Following public
consultation in which EBPC played its part, the Government has decided that there will be 3
unitaries for Suffolk. This we thought would be better than the One Suffolk proposal as we
believe the smaller size of the council will allow our local voice to be heard. The new unitaries
for Suffolk will be Ipswich and South Suffolk; West Suffolk; East Suffolk. East Bergholt is
included in the Ipswich and South Suffolk unitary. The area of this unitary covers Ipswich to
Felixstowe and a large rural area which takes in the villages neighbouring the north of Ipswich,
and a wider sweep from Ipswich to Hadleigh down to the Essex border at Stratford St Mary, and
east along the Stour to include all of the Shotley peninsular. The councils involved have started
planning the details of boundaries and the division of staff and assets. EBPC has joined the 3
Valleys group of parish councils which consists of the villages south of Ipswich and down the
A12 to the Essex border. In this way we hope to influence the unifying work as it progresses, in
particular to ensure the impact of our Neighbourhood Plan will be respected in the new Unitary
Council’s Joint Local Plan. Elections for this unitary are expected in 2027 to form a shadow
authority which will take over the local councils responsibilities during 2027/28 until the new
council takes up its formal responsibilities in 2028.

The work of arguing for a local voice has been heard and we have a manageable sized unitary
council. Now EBPC intends to keep the pressure on to ensure your local voices continue to be
heard by the new unitary council.

PCSO
EBPC has decided, subject to contract details being confirmed, to go into partnership with
Brantham Parish Council to employ a full-time PCSO (police community support officer – a
modern version of the village bobby). A PCSO is a member of the Suffolk Constabulary, a
professional who can help our village with problems such as speeding, parking, antisocial
behaviour, help with road safety training for children, and assist with other matters that have
been troubling the village for some time. A PCSO is not a Police Officer, but they are a full part

of the local area policing team and will have full support on policing matters. The proposal is that
we share our PCSO 50/50 with Brantham, and that the person recruited by the police will be
dedicated 50% of their time to Brantham and 50% of their time to EB, with each parish council
paying 50% of the cost. EBPC will have day to day management of the workload of the PCSO in
coordination with the local police team, so that we can ensure the post is directed at our village
priorities and we will benefit from the greater knowledge of the police systems. We expect the
person recruited will be in position in EB by the end of the summer.

Conservation Area Extension
EBPC has been working in close partnership with Babergh District Council to create a formal
proposal to extend our conservation area. We have benefited from the voluntary local expertise
in John Lyall and the professional assistance of a national firm, the Heritage Collective group
(they wrote our Historic Landscape report) to create the case for conserving our historic
landscapes in EB. EBPC held a public consultation in February to explain the proposals. A
public exhibition was very well supported and the majority of the village have told us they are
very much on favour of these proposals which will protect our village heritage. The formal
consultation by Babergh District Council, who have the responsibility for making decisions on
conservation areas, will begin on 11 May, and will be open for 4 weeks for residents to express
their views to Babergh. Their report on the proposed expansion is expected to go to Babergh
councillors on 21 June for a final decision.

Constable 250, In Our View
EBPC set up a working group of Marion Burns, myself and representatives of village
organisations to coordinate events in the village for the celebration of John Constable’s 250
th

birthday year. The group has worked very hard to combine dates and encourage projects and
we now have a wonderful set of events to enjoy that all the different organisations are putting on
this summer and autumn. We thank them all for their great efforts to achieve this programme.
We were also pleased to include other events planned in Dedham and Brantham. The full diary
is on the Parish Council’s website.

Community Events
Cllr Lyn Matthews has worked hard on making close connections with Babergh, police and
health officers to run local community events that bring health and welfare experts to the village
to offer residents advice and connections to services where we live. The problem has been that
attendance at these events has been irregular and sometimes quite low numbers. She is
experimenting in 2026 holding the events at East End to see if that makes a difference to
attendance.

There are very many other activities that EBPC has been involved with this year and a digest of
these actions can be found in the Chair’s monthly report attached to council meeting papers.
The Chairs of the main committees also provide updates on a two-monthly basis and these
reports are also attached in full to the relevant meeting papers.

Joan Miller, 27/4/26