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EAST BERGHOLT PARISH COUNCIL

MINUTES OF THE STRATEGY, POLICY AND FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

24 July 2025

Present – Parish Councillors
Councillor R Elmer (Chair)
Councillor S Davies
Councillor M Hockley
Councillor M Hurley
Councillor J Miller
Councillor J Price
Councillor N Roberts

In Attendance
G White, Parish Clerk
Councillor G Woodcock
Lee Partridge EBUFC Juniors

OPEN PUBLIC SESSION

The Chair advised Councillor Woodcock and Mr Partridge that they could both speak upon the items of
interest to them prior to the Committee’s consideration of those items.

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
None.

2. DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
None.

3. MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting of 24 April 2025 and the extraordinary meeting of 5 June 2024 were
approved as a correct record.

4. MATTERS ARISING/UPDATES

24/05/25 Minute 4 Hopper Bus – In response to a question from Councillor Roberts, Councillor Miller
informed the committee that this project is now on the SCC list for the next round of SCC funding
consideration and the Babergh DC officer has submitted a new funding bid to SCC.

5. APPLICATION FOR GRANT AID – EBUFC JUNIORS

The Chair advanced this item up the agenda and invited Mr Partridge to speak. He said that EBUFC
Juniors continued to grow and that there were now over 200 children in membership. This application
for funding is lower than last year’s application and is solely to cover the rent for the primary school
field on Saturday mornings. The use of this facility by the younger age groups is valuable with pitches
at a premium and also provides parking relief to Gandish Road. The accounts, which had been
circulated, show a balance of just under £6k some of which had been assigned to projects, leaving
available funds of c.£3k.

Councillor Roberts asked how long a grant of £2,750 would last. Mr Partridge replied, for the duration
of the season from September – May.

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Councillor Roberts noted that the managing committee was clearly doing a good job but wondered if
advertising for additional members in the parish magazine would create a problem of over capacity
though on the other hand an extra 17 junior members would cover the cost of hiring the primary school
field.

Mr Partridge said that they do have to turn away many children as there is a capacity for the various
teams. Currently there are two age groups without teams but this will level out in each age group over
time and a maximum number will be reached, which is about 250 members.

Councillor Price reflected that junior football used to be spontaneous and Mr Partridge agreed,
believing it now to be too organised with too much structure.

It was proposed by Councillor Hockley, seconded by Councillor Hurley and RESOLVED (unanimously)
that pursuant to section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 an award of £2,750 be made to East Bergholt
United FC Juniors for the hiring of the primary school field on Saturday mornings for training purposes.

6. CIL POLICY

The Clerk reported that a working group of the Chair of the Committee, the Chair and Vice-Chair of the
Council and the Clerk had reviewed the policy of June 2023 and he presented a draft revised policy
comprising the original policy with track changes for consideration.

Councillor Price considered that the revised policy should make it clear that the criteria for an award
should be wider than that used by Babergh DC, so as to include works of improvement to existing
infrastructure, such as the rendering of Constable Hall which was in need of refurbishment.

Councillor Miller advised that a Government list of appropriate infrastructure projects was wider than
the Babergh list and it was agreed that this should be set out in the section on criteria for evaluating
CIL bids.

Subject to that amendment, it was agreed that the draft policy be submitted to Council with a
recommendation for approval.

7. CIL APPLICATION – PLAYING FIELD COMMITTEE – SOLAR PANELS

The Chair invited Councillor Woodcock to present the application. He related the history of the project
back to 2022 up to the present time when the Playing Field Committee’s preferred tenderer’s proposal
and costs would amount to a price up to c.£20k.

External funding had been explored without success and there was no provision in the Playing Field
budget, hence the application for a Parish CIL award. Some external funders made awards based on
match funding and it was thought this might be explored further.

Councillor Woodcock explained that following enquiries, Babergh DC CIL was not available for this
project. Councillor Davies said that very recently Babergh DC had revised its process and introduced a
solar policy and she considered that this application may now fall within the ambit of Babergh CIL.
Councillor Miller reminded the committee that Babergh had £1.2m in a pot for appropriate East
Bergholt projects.

The Committee agreed that the Playing Field Committee should establish whether an application to
Babergh under its revised policies would be accepted and if so to make such application on the basis
of a 75% contribution from Babergh CIL and a 25% contribution from Parish CIL.

8. CIL APPLICATION – THE LAMBE SCHOOL

The Chair advised that this application was withdrawn.

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9. APPLICATION FOR GRANT AID

The Committee considered the report from the Assistant Clerk that raffle proceeds from the Summer
Fair in the sum of £350.20 had been credited to the grant budget to enable the committee to make a
charitable donation. The Summer Fair Working Group requested the committee to made the donation
to the Parochial Church Council for the purposes of the Pantry in the Porch.

It was proposed by Councillor Hurley, seconded by Councillor Hockley and RESOLVED (unanimously
that pursuant to section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 an award of £350.20, the proceeds of the Summer
Fair raffle, be made to East Bergholt Parochial Church Council for the purposes of the Pantry in the
Porch.

10. URGENT COMMUNICATIONS

With the consent of the Chair, Councillor Hockley sought a supplementary estimate of £10k for the
provision of a rabbit-proof fence at the playing field, to combat the current rabbit infestation and
consequent damage to the playing field, which could not be accommodated within the Playing Field
budget. He circulated a quote for the works.

Councillor Miller pointed out that although there was a degree of urgency to this, the matter had not
been subject to due process and a request for a supplementary estimate required a resolution from
the Playing Field Committee to that effect, following consideration by that committee of the issue
generally and of three estimates for the works. This could then be considered by the SPF Committee
which could make a recommendation to Council. The committee so agreed and the matter was
remitted to the Playing Field Committee.

The meeting closed at 8.38 pm

Chairman…………………………………………………………………………………….Date………………………………………..