Council objects to Norwich to Tilbury pylon proposals
On June 8
th
, Suffolk County Council confirmed its intention to object to the
proposals for National Grid’s East Anglia GREEN pylon run.
A new network is needed to deliver electricity between Norwich, Bramford
and Tilbury, to cope with the increasing amounts of renewable and low
carbon electricity being generated around East Anglia.
This is National Grid’s East Anglia GREEN proposal, which would see many
pylons installed across the county, affecting the Suffolk countryside and its
communities.
But the council does not support this proposal as it stands. It believes that
there are better ways to manage the project, for example involving an
undersea network which has not been fully investigated.
The council has been campaigning for government ministers and officials to
introduce a more co-ordinated off-shore approach to meet the demands of
all the energy projects in the region.
Councillor Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet
Member for Finance & Environment, has written to the Minister of State for
Business, Energy and Clean Growth:
“The council absolutely supports ambitions for renewable energy and the
government’s commitment to meet the target of Net Zero by 2050. We
recognise the benefits that can come from this project, and we continue to
work with the government to develop coordinated off-shore transmission.
“However, the council objects to the proposal for National Grid’s East Anglia
GREEN as it stands. I am determined that Suffolk will not suffer unnecessarily
as a consequence, we will continue to protect our communities, residents
and natural environment.
“Suffolk County Council has been lobbying government for 11 years on the
issue of better coordination for off-shore transmission. We are demanding
that a more collaborative solution is found to manage the different network
connection requirements coming into Suffolk and East Anglia, and that all
network options are fully explored.
“Alongside other regional councillors and MPs, through our OffSET group
(the Off-Shore Electricity Grid Task Force), we regularly speak with
government ministers and officials to express our concerns about the impact
of these projects on Suffolk, and East Anglia. Last week I wrote directly to the

Minister, to continue to represent Suffolk’s communities and residents, to re-
emphasise the recent points made by OffSET.”

National Grid’s public consultation on East Anglia GREEN is open until
Thursday 16 June 2022 and can be found on the National Grid website.

Successful communities awarded £6.4m to ‘Reclaim the Rain’ and tackle
flooding

Norfolk and Suffolk County Council’s joint Reclaim the Rain project, which
aims to implement innovative and sustainable water management projects,
progressed on June 14
th
.
The Norfolk and Suffolk County Council’s joint Reclaim the Rain project,
which aims to implement innovative and sustainable water management
projects progresses as six communities are selected across both counties.
The project team received 37 formal applications from communities keen to
be involved in Reclaim the Rain. These applications were carefully
considered and whittled down to three communities in Suffolk and three in
Norfolk.
The three chosen communities in Suffolk are:
• Boxford – this community displayed a strong interest in sustainable
water management and ways in which the community could be more
involved with water management.
• Friston – who are exploring innovative ways of resolving long-standing
hard-to-resolve flood issues.
• Little Blakenham – they identified some excellent opportunities to
work with upstream landowners, allowing them to have a more
proactive approach in managing flood water running off their land.
The selection process was based on various factors, including each
community’s vulnerability to surface water flooding, water resource needs,
rurality and the likelihood of attracting funding outside of our project.
In the coming months, Reclaim the Rain will be working closely with these
communities to develop projects which maximise the opportunities to
manage risks from both flooding and droughts. The overall project objective
is to identify new ways of working that can be learnt from and evidenced to

inform and influence future policy, approaches to, and investments in how
flood risk is managed nationally in the coming years.
Norfolk and Suffolk both face considerable surface water flood risk, while
also being the driest region in the UK. The project will aim to store flood
water and make it available for use by agriculture, industry, communities,
and the environment.
The project will involve both partner organisations and the community in the
development of suitable flood water reuse schemes. The schemes will
address the community’s needs in terms of flood risk and water resource
requirements, and could result in provision of:
• Habitat creation and restoration;
• Irrigation reservoir recharge
• Rainwater Capture and Reuse for community, agriculture or business
use;
• Retrofitted SuDS;
• Smart Leaky Water Butts
• Rain Gardens and more
Suffolk leading the way in UK’s water conservation
Announced on June 16
th
, a new scheme based in Felixstowe reuses over
800,000 tonnes of water.
Since its launch in February 2021 a unique scheme to the UK, based in
Felixstowe, has saved over 800,000 tonnes of water being lost to the North
Sea – and reused it to grow Suffolk crops.
Drainage water has traditionally been pumped away to the River Deben and
North Sea, damaging saltmarsh along the way. Instead, it is now pumped
back inland, conserving the saltmarsh and refilling 14 reservoirs, which six
local farms are using to irrigate their crops.
Last week (9-10 June 2022) local landowners and national organisations were
invited to visit the site, to hear first-hand from the scheme’s operators,
Felixstowe Hydrocycle, and from farmers who are benefitting from the
scheme.
Organised by Suffolk County Council, working with the Environment Agency
and University of East Anglia as key partners of the project, the event aimed
to inspire more schemes to be trialled around Suffolk, the UK and Europe.

Extra funding agreed by Cabinet to fund new SEND places
Funding for second phase of £45 million five-year project agreed by Cabinet.
Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet has today agreed an additional £15.9million
to complete the funding for the creation of at least 879 specialist places for
children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
This money marks the second phase of a £45million five-year project to
deliver specialist provision for SEND students in Suffolk. These places include
units attached to mainstream schools and three new special schools.
So far, 500 new places have opened across the county, with another 325 due
to open between September 2022 and September 2024 under phase 1. The
additional money will enable the completion of phase 2 of the project, and
the creation of between 54 to 72 new places, depending on design and
planning.
The new SEND places support the growing number of children and young
people in Suffolk who need specialist help at school. Between September
2021 and May 2022 there have been 1,333 referrals for specialist placements
for children currently in mainstream schools.