DISTRICT COUNCILLOR’S REPORT January 2026

I do not have a great deal to report this month as Christmas and New Year are
inevitably quiet.

Car Park Charges
Cabinet is to consider increasing car park charges in Sudbury, Hadleigh and
Lavenham and to begin charging at Pin Mill. By the time of the parish council
meeting the cabinet meeting will have taken place and I will be able to update you.
The council commissioned the University of Suffolk to produce a study on the impact
of imposing charges on footfall, spend and length of visit in our market towns. To
sum up, the impact is negligible and, even where figures appear to go down, there is
no way of linking this to car park charges.
The increases in charges are not large and are still some of the cheapest in our
area. The increases will assist the council to cover all the costs of the car parks
rather than subsidising them. However, this is a controversial topic in the affected
towns.

Budget
A minor piece of positive news on Babergh’s budget. The budget for 2026 to 2027
had presumed no money from government. However just before Christmas the
government funding settlement for Babergh was announced and this means that the
council will be in the black by £385,000 for the budget year 2026 to 2027. The
council has identified £2.535m of cost savings and has increased projected income
through rises in the cost of fees and licences.
The government funding does not help the council much in the medium term – by
2029 to 2030 Babergh is projected to have a large revenue gap and not enough
financial reserves available to fund this gap. At the last cabinet meeting, financial
officers stated “In view of this significant funding deficit the financial position of the
Council is vulnerable and unsustainable. Significant savings and/or increases in
income will need to be identified in the years to come to balance the budget as there
is insufficient uncommitted reserves to fund the forecast deficits. It is forecast that
the Council will run out of the Financial Risk and Resilience Reserve in 2029/30 if the
current forecast trajectory comes to pass.” By that time, in theory, Babergh will not
exist any longer and there will be a unitary council in place instead.
It is worth repeating that only 9p in every £1 of council tax goes to Babergh District
Council. We are not alone in this financial predicament. Councils all over the
country are experiencing the same challenges.

Planning
Just before Christmas the Planning and Infrastructure Bill was given the Royal
Assent. This bill is intended to improve the working of planning committees by
outlining a national scheme of delegation (the decision on whether decisions go to a
planning officer or the planning committee), with only major applications going to
committee. This will apparently speed up housebuilding. Except it won’t. It is not
the planning system that is holding up housebuilding, it is the 3000 extant planning
permissions sitting in Babergh which have not been built out. And the skills
shortage. And the fact that new housing is reliant on the market. Babergh’s
planning committee does not delay decisions, the members receive regular training
and it is not a large committee. I do not believe the new Act will make much
difference to the way we work in Babergh.
There is also a current consultation on yet more changes to the National Planning
Policy Framework (NPPF). Babergh will be responding to the plans which include
exemptions for smaller sites from Biodiversity Net Gain. Anyone can respond – here
is the link National Planning Policy Framework: proposed reforms and other changes
to the planning system