Monthly Report September’25 - Sproughton & Pinewood Ward

GENERAL UPDATES

The district wide monthly update can be found here  Babergh's town and parish briefing notes 

Devolution & Local Government Reorganisation: The case for change was debated at Septembers council meeting and passed without incident – holding fast to the three unitary concept. So, everyone has relaxed for a short period of time. However, attention is now turning towards the public consultation exercise that will be held Nov’25 – Jan’26, We are thinking about how best to engage people so that they reply to the consultation. The more people that reply the better and hopefully our collective views will be taken into account by the government – the government must choose between 1 & 3 unitaries, although they have been known to suggest alternate proposals. It will take until Apr’28 to define how a new unitary council will work, dissolve existing councils and create the new unitaries. 

 Bentley Fruit Farm Application: This application was refused which was a shame as it would have provided around 60% affordable housing – unfortunately there were too many issues with the application for it to be approved.

 Marks & Spencer @ Copdock: This application is still outstanding. No news as to when it will be decided.

 Joint Local Plan: We had an interesting presentation on the Joint Local Plan which will affect all of us – ‘Housing Assessment & Future Call 4 Sites’ We need to build 780 homes per annum – pre-Labour government & a new standard method for calculating housing need up from 416 homes per annum. The plan will last for 20years. The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment has been published from which suitable sites will be selected for development. This document can be used for those doing Neighbourhood Plans to identify sites for allocation. Another call for sites will be done for all types of development – housing, employment & traveller at which point the SHLAA becomes a SHELAA = Strategic Housing & Employment Availability Assessment (in case you were wondering what the acronyms are!!). This will run from Oct25-Jan26. One of the things we should remember is that under the ‘Duty to Cooperate’ the district councils surrounding Ipswich are obliged to take on any of Ipswich’s housing requirement that they cannot accommodate. I strongly suspect that if a three unitary model is approved ‘Ipswich & South East Suffolk’ will be told to meet that need within its  boundaries resulting in a greater concentration of new homes within that unitary compared to the other two.

 PORTFOLIO

 Sustainable Travel: The second Eezybike installation has gone live in Lavenham. I did my usual wobbling around on the electric bike for the cameras and a quick interview which is somewhere on Babergh’ social media.. I have begun to look at the River Gipping Path from Stowmarket to Ipswich with a view to identifying gaps that need to be improved to hopefully end up with a contiguous path – something that would be brilliant in terms of access, exercise, well-being etc especially when considering the amount of housing development built recently and planned along the River Gipping corridor.

 Biodiversity: We are looking forward to the first draft of the Biodiversity Action Plan in (now) October. This will be reviewed by the working group before being amended and presented to the cabinet. The final version of the Norfolk & Suffolk Local Nature Reserve Strategy is due to go to Cabinet in October and will be launched in November. I have asked that we discuss how the LNRS be incorporated into the JLP and this has been included in the November agenda for the JLP Working Group.

 Solar 4 Business :Going well. A good number of enquiries were received which are progressing through the process to the extent that we are beginning to look at other possible sites. 

THE WARD ITSELF 

Parking at Suffolk One: I am due to meet with Suffolk One to discuss the findings relating to S1 – there were a number of suggestions from residents as to how S1 could help. After this the paper can be submitted to Highways. Just to be on the safe side I will go through the paper with Highways before formal submission to check it contains enough information to enable it to be put forward for Design & Costing.

 Traffic Solutions 4 Sproughton: The Parish Council have received feedback on the paper and we are collating the (many) responses to come up with a prioritised list of enhancements. This will then be presented to Highways.

 Sproughton Nature Reserve: Ipswich BC have completed their review of the legal agreement and have sent it back to Babergh legal for hopefully, signing. I will keep chasing this…I’m also working with IBC to create a list of items that they would like to see in the LNR such as noticeboards, seating with the aim of getting funding for this. 

If you ever have an issue to raise with me please use the contact details below. I look forward to hearing from you.

 Councillor Helen Davies: District Councillor for Sproughton & Pinewood Mobile: 07514 951190 E-mail: Helen.Davies@ babergh.gov.uk Twitter: @HelenDSproughtn