EAST BERGHOLT NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT
FOR YEAR 2025/2026

Councillors will remember considering a draft version of East Bergholt’s revised Neighbourhood
Plan Regulation 14 pre submission draft for consultation in February 2025. At this point we were
feeling well advanced, clear about the way ahead and looking forward to good progress and
adoption in 2026. This is not how it turned out.

The strategic context on which our Plan had been based changed, as if overnight, at both a
national and district planning level. We faced new national planning guidance, new housing
targets, and a decision by B&MS to halt preparation of the much delayed Joint Local Plan and to
start again in September 2026. Then in March 2026 we heard that with local government
reorganisation Babergh District would be wound up and East Bergholt would become part of a
new unitary authority comprising Greater Ipswich and South Suffolk in 2028. It felt as if we were
“planning in a vacuum” which is not feasible for a Plan intended to cover a period of 20 years.
The vacuum created considerable difficulty in understanding what housing provision might be
required,in East Bergholt, what might be acceptable or even possible and so has inevitably
delayed the Housing Chapter.

The Neighbourhood Plan Group has now agreed to move forward regardless. It has reviewed its
housing allocations, its possible sites, the needs of East Bergholt as well as the heritage and
landscape constraints that define our village, and will be putting forward a robust evidence
based case for the proposed housing policies, in the absence of any strategic direction from
Babergh which is unlikely any time soon. Better we decided to lead the debate rather
than………….just wait. We are working with our planning consultants to have this section of the
Neighbourhood Plan prepared by mid summer.

After four years of waiting (and basically giving up) Babergh did however resurrect our
proposals to extend the East Bergholt Conservation Area. The 250 year anniversary of
Constable’s birth proved rather more persuasive than the Parish Council’s proposals from
October 2020 in moving this forward. So in 2025 with Babergh on board we jointly
commissioned Heritage Collective (HCUK) to prepare a formal Conservation Area Appraisal.
This will be subject to a four week formal consultation commencing 11 May 2026, an open
meeting in the Lambe School on 23 May and Babergh Full Council is scheduled to consider
their Heritage Officer’s report and recommendations on 21st July. So, fingers crossed, the new
boundary designation will at this point become part of the revised Neighbourhood Plan draft.
Thanks in particular to Joan Miller and John Lyall for their massive contributions, to Sallie
Davies for encouraging Babergh for finally see the point and to Jody O’Reilly, Director at HCUK,
for her great report.

So after a period of stasis during the middle of last year, we have made good progress in the
past few months and we are targeting September 2026 to have a Neighbourhood Plan ready for
formal Consultation with all residents of East Bergholt and statutory consultees. From there, add
say 12 months for all the necessary next steps, and with a fair wind, we might be looking at

formal adoption in late 2027. Then hopefully we will have a fully up to date Neighbourhood Plan
providing some added protection from the “build baby build” mentality that seems to be this
government’s mantra.

Last I’d like to thank the Committee who passed the budget for 2026/27, all those on the
Working Group who give up their time in the hope and expectation that we might finally arrive,
and to Sallie Davies who handed over the Chair to me in late 2025 and provides a vital link to
the all things Babergh.

Councillor Roberts
Chair of East Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan Committee