East Bergholt Parish Council
Neighbourhood Plan Committee
Chair’s Annual Report
2022

In order to combat the climate emergency the East Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan Group has
decided to put achieving carbon neutrality in the village at the core of our new
Neighbourhood Plan. As a first step, we produced a report which helped define what Net
Zero would mean for homes in East Bergholt and we are now planning a delivery road map.
We have set a target of achieving Net Zero for homes in East Bergholt by 2045 and our next
steps will include extending our analysis to the non-residential estate and working with
Eastern New Energy Project to investigate ways to increase energy efficiency. We will
consult the village about this with a Sustainability Survey in the near future and also plan to
hold a village meeting on the subject later in 2022.

Working with the Parish Council, the Group carried out a Call for Sites asking people to let us
know about land which might be suitable for new housing – and other uses such as amenity
and playing fields spaces, spaces for employment opportunities as well as land where a
residential care facility for elderly people and affordable housing could be built. The
responses we received are currently being surveyed by Aecom who will report back by the
end of June 2022. We decided to carry out the Call for Sites because our current
Neighbourhood Plan has no specific site allocations and this means that if Babergh District
Council cannot prove a future five years of housing land supply the decision as to where
housing should be allocated will be in the hands of Babergh or the Planning Inspectorate.
However, by allocating a site in our Neighbourhood Plan we should be able to influence the
location of future new development.

In addition, the Group appointed PJA consultancy to consider solutions to traffic and
transport issues in East Bergholt. These issues include road safety, village centre congestion,
parking, traffic volumes, speeding, limited pavement space and cycle paths. As part of their
work the consultants toured the village on a fact-finding visit, as well as helping to produce
an online, and paper, traffic questionnaire for the residents of the village, the results of
which they are currently analysing. The consultancy is also carrying out a traffic survey, in
conjunction with Capital Road Safety, using ANPR cameras and ATC wires. Sadly, due to
vandalism, this survey has had to be conducted three times. It is designed to track the
routes vehicles take and to work out the number of vehicles taking these key routes. PJA will
produce a high-level sustainable plan by the end of June exploring new approaches to road
design and traffic management in East Bergholt and this will help us develop new content,
policies and projects and will also help provide the evidence base for the revised
Neighbourhood Plan.

The traffic questionnaire was the second in a planned series of Mini Surveys designed to
give people a chance to share their views and help shape the future of the village. The
surveys will also ensure the revised Neighbourhood Plan continues to reflect the views of
the people who live in East Bergholt as well as providing evidence to support updated
policies and projects. The first survey was launched towards the end of 2021 and focused on
key issues. It was available to complete both online and on paper with flyers being

distributed to every house in the village. The online survey was accessible through links on
the Village Website and on social media (ie the Neighbourhood Plan Facebook page, East
Bergholt Voice and Bergholt Bulletin) as well as by scanning a QR code displayed on posters
around the village and published in the Parish Magazine, In Touch and Look magazines. The
survey elicited a good response, with the numbers of responses being equivalent to over a
quarter of the households in the village, and traffic was identified as the topic residents are
the most concerned about. For this reason, we chose to cover traffic in our second survey.
We were pleased to achieve an even higher response rate than the first survey and will
report back further once the results have been analysed. A provisional schedule of future
surveys has been produced covering a variety of topics including infrastructure, facilities and
tourism.

Other actions carried out by the Group include completing a Conservation Area extension
application. The application was approved by the Parish Council and submitted to Babergh
District Council to review and carry out a public consultation exercise.

A Museum Group has been established to formulate a proposal for a physical East Bergholt
Museum space, which might sit alongside a virtual museum website, and could also link to
Constable Country Walks using QR codes.

We have also decided to include a Biodiversity section in the revised Neighbourhood Plan
measuring the health of the biodiversity in East Bergholt and establishing what needs to be
done to improve matters.

In addition, we applied to the Department of Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities to
become a pilot village for the National Model Design Code, but our application was not
successful. We also researched the possibility of creating a village database, but decided to
pause this project for the time-being as it generated too many complex issues over the
holding of personal information. Additionally, the Group liaised with County Broadband
regarding their plan to build a full-fibre broadband network in East Bergholt, in order to fully
understand the pros and cons of the offer, and carried out useful face to face question and
answer sessions with Suffolk County Councillor Georgia Hall and Babergh District Councillor
John Hinton.

We have kept the channels of communication open with Babergh, for example by holding a
Zoom meeting with officers to clarify what effect the two-stage rewrite of the Joint Local
Plan will have on the creation of the revised Neighbourhood Plan, and by attending
meetings with the Babergh Arts Officer. The Group has met monthly, mostly by Zoom, and
we have welcomed new members Professor Peter Vergo and Nigel Downton. I would like to
thank all the members of the Group for their hard work and I look forward to working with
you all on the exciting initiatives we have planned for the future.

Clare Cathcart
Project Manager and Chair, East Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan Committee