East Bergholt Parish Council, Chair’s Annual Report, 24/25

In Feb 2024 the Parish Council adopted priority projects which had been identified through the
Neighbourhood Plan work and which included:

Congregational Church Community hub, Lead councillor Joan Miller
During 2025 we have formally agreed with the Congregational Church Deacons and trustees
that the Congregational Church charity and all its assets will be transferred to a new Parish
Council Charity. We have agreed with the Deacons that the key objectives of the charity will be
to create a village community hub, a parish council office and advice centre, a flexible space for
community groups, a home for the East Bergholt archives owned by the East Bergholt Society,
and in due course a space for older people’s sheltered accommodation in the grounds of the
church. We are now waiting for the Charity Commission to approve these objectives so that the
transfer can be completed. The Parish Council aims to open the church as it is in the first
instance and then seek views of the village on how the building will work best for community
activity in the future. A question I am often asked is what changes we will make to the fabric of
the church? In essence our aim is to create a flexible space but at the same time to preserve as
much as possible of the current impressive architecture of the church. We will also be seeking
your views as to which activities and services will be best supporting the village. Our aim is to
coordinate with St Mary’s Church and other village halls and local businesses, as we wish to
work in partnership and complement rather than compete with other already established village
institutions.

Affordable Housing, Lead councillor Lyn Matthews
The Parish Council is working with EB Community Land Trust in their endeavours to create
affordable housing for East Bergholt. The main hurdle facing us is finding affordable land on
which to build these homes for people who live in or are closely connected to East Bergholt and
who cannot afford the high market prices in our village. Both the PC and the CLT have had
productive conversations and gained Babergh’s support for this ambition, but the availability of
land at the right price has been an elusive goal.

Road Safety, Lead councillor Nigel Roberts
There are many unsafe roads and footpaths around the village and following the consultation
exercise in 2023 we have been making progress on the key priority that came top of your list, the
stretch of the B1070 as it runs through the village past the High School between the two new
developments at either end. Some improvements have been made in a new zebra crossing and
cutting back vegetation encroaching on the footpath along the southern side of this stretch of
road, largely paid for by the new developments. However we are not finished yet and we have
commissioned a technical study to design a feasible solution to widening the footpath and
making it more accessible and to control the speed limits.

I would like to thank Nigel Roberts, vice-chair, who has been tireless in chasing progress on this
work, as well as on all the other work that he does for the Parish Council, particularly for his
generous contribution of his expertise in the area of strategic planning.

Refresh Website. Lead councillor Robert Wombwell
The new Parish Council website was launched at the end of January 2025. The design of the new
site aims to make it easier to find material required, including the record of all Parish Council
and Committee meetings. I would like to particularly think Rob Wombwell who spent an
inordinate amount of time and expertise in making the site work and who has very recently
retired from the Parish Council. We are very grateful for all the work he has put into this and into

other parish council work. I also want to thank Louise Smith who spent many additional hours
making sure the site worked and that the data was correct prior to the launch.

Welcoming Newcomers to the Village
The Parish Council put on a very successful village fair in the summer of 2024, an event which
has had many compliments, to the extent that we are holding another Village Fair on Sunday 6
July from 1.00-5.00pm. As well as promoting an opportunity for the residents of our village to get
together and celebrate the summer, we also extend a very warm welcome to newcomers to our
village. The fair allows local voluntary organisations to show people what they do, allows local
business to present their wares and also provides sporting and other fun activities for all the
village to enjoy. Let’s hope we have a sunny afternoon again this year.

And many other projects:
I would like to thank the hard work and effort of all parish councillors who have been engaged in
making these projects succeed and I will leave it to chairs of committees to report on their work.

John Price, chair of the Roads, Footpaths and Flatford Committee.
Graeme Woodcock, chair of the Playing Fields Committee
Mark Hurley will tell you about the Burial Grounds Committee
Sallie Davies, Chair of the Young People’s Committee
Sallie Davies, Chair of NP Committee, will report on the progress made to revise our NP.

Funding for these projects
The main sources of funding available to EBPC for investment in these projects are our reserves
and our local CIL monies. We are also able to bid for CIL from Babergh DC funds. Bob Elmer,
chair of the Strategy, Policy ad Finance Committee can tell you more about this, but I would like
to mention that after 2 years of holding the precept steady we have made a very small increase
in parish council precept this year, but due to the increase in number of households in the
village, each household will be paying a little less for their parish council tax this year.

Looking ahead
There is no standing still for the parish council, nor for Babergh and new houses. The
Government have set new targets for building new houses which amount to an increase in 88%
on house numbers in each year for the next 20 years. If this is extrapolated in the same
proportion as current new builds this will mean an extra 220 houses to be built in East Bergholt
for the period of our Neighbourhood Plan. This would mean an additional large growth and as
soon as we have the details confirmed the parish council will be consulting you all, as village
residents, on how you would like the parish council to address this problem.

In the meantime we will be continuing with the priorities that you have already set us.

We have had two retirements from the Parish Council this year, Simon Rothwell and Rob
Wombwell. I would like to thank them both for the very hard work they did to support village
services. We have one new Parish Councillor. Marion Burns was coopted on to the Parish
Council and is already hard at work.

Joan Miller, Chair, East Bergholt Parish Council