Press Releases

Babergh District Councillors will get the chance next week to debate the results of no less than four surveys looking at what residents think of the Council.

Babergh District Council is on the lookout for one new independent member of its Standards Committee and is promoting the recruitment campaign with the message “Why not you?”.

Babergh District Council has voted to go beyond its legal requirements in banning smoking in many of the open areas on its property. At the same time, Councillors backed Babergh’s involvement in a free NHS-run scheme aimed at helping staff and Members who smoke to give up the habit.

Rigorous budgeting and another successful year of seeking out new savings has resulted in Babergh District Council achieving a below inflation Council Tax increase for the next financial year.

Babergh’s full Council today backed budget proposals which will see the Babergh part of the Tax for a Band D property increase from £122.68 to £126.24 – a weekly increase of less than 7 pence a week and a percentage increase of 2.9%. In doing so, the Council maintains its position as having the second lowest Council Tax of all the districts and boroughs in Suffolk.

An architects’ report issued today has revealed the far higher than expected costs of building a new and improved Hadleigh pool.  As a result Babergh District Council is calling on its partners in the project, which is tasked with replacing the existing five lane 25m facility, to redouble their efforts in finding extra funding and on agreeing to look in detail at two of the more affordable alternatives. 

Babergh District Council’s Strategy Committee is recommending a below inflation increase in its part of next year’s Council Tax. If these proposals are backed by other committees and then the full Council in February, the increase will amount to only seven pence a week.

A Principal Environmental Health Officer at Babergh District Council is due to meet The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP, at 10 Downing Street on Monday 11th December to discuss ways of lessening the administrative burdens on businesses – without reducing the safety of staff, customers and the general public.

Babergh is offering both a free workshop and a site visit to food-handling businesses in the district. The Council’s Environmental Health Team is doing this to ensure that firms are complying with the new food regulations that came into force this year.

“Sometimes managing success can be the most challenging thing in the world”. Neil Henry, Babergh District Council’s Economic Development Manager was speaking at the launch of a new initiative aimed at further supporting new and small businesses in the Sudbury and Hadleigh areas.

A Little Waldingfield householder who built an enormous storage hanger on her land without planning permission was today (13th October) fined over £1300 by Sudbury Magistrates’ Court in a prosecution brought by Babergh District Council.

“As a large local organisation committed to the protection of our environment, Babergh always tries to set an example” explained Malcolm Firth, Babergh’s Head of the Natural & Built Environment as the Council took delivery today (26th September) of a new ‘green’ car.