Speaker: Vicky Moseley, leading on Feel Good Suffolk for Babergh/Mid Suffolk to explain this county-wide collaborative initiative and how parishes and towns can help promote. Vicky also provided details of funding available across the district to highlight opportunities for parishes or other community groups.
Click on this link to view the slide presentation for Feel Good Suffolk.
Click on this link to view the slide presentation for details of grant funding.
Speaker: Teresa Farley, Community Action Suffolk, Good Neighbour Scheme - click on this link to view the slide presentation
Speaker: Laura Cave, SCC Flood Grants Officer, DEFRA;s Property Flood Resilience Grant Scheme
Recordings of all speakers are available below.
Attendance stats
Election of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson We are delighted to inform you that Jane Cryer, Layham, was elected as Area Chairperson. Helen Davies, Sproughton, was elected as Vice-Chairperson. Helen Davies was thanked for her committment and support following her term as Chairperson for four years and to Jane Cryer for stepping into that role.
Discussion topic - What is your councils relationship like with the Local Planning Authority? Councils in attendance gave their feedback which was a positive relationship. A dedicated webpage People and Place was highlighted, click on this link to view. Babergh planning authority have recently issued a survey to councils to obtain feedback. From this discussion, it was clear that training is an area that councils need more support with. SALC recently held four planning webinars, click on this link to view details and order the recordings.
SALC Update: SALC re-structure - Appointed a new Development and Support Officer – role to support training and development of new clerks. Appointed a new Advice and Development Manager – to replace Jim as retiring at the end of the year – to ensure a smooth transition there will be a comprehensive handover
Suffolk Highways - a survey on Suffolk Highways will be shared with clerks to obtain feedback, this is following on from the SALC Conference at which Suffolk Highways attended. There will be two forums, free and online, focusing on flooding and drainage and another on winter maintenance programme – we are aiming for these to be available to book later this week – please ask your clerk to book your place. There will also be an in-person focus group at SCC offices to review and discuss the results of the survey.
NPPF consultation – SALC commissioned a consultancy company to provide a non-technical summary of the key NPPF changes which was shared with councils on 6th September. Deadline to respond to consultation is 11.45 pm, 24th September. Click on this link to view the non-technical summary.
Parish Council Domain Helper Service - update. The halfway point has now been reached in terms of allocated funding. In this financial year, almost 500 councils have claimed their funding (£100), and this figure is increasing each month. The current projection suggested that all funding will be allocated by February 2025 and it has been confirmed that funding will NOT be available in future years. This being the case, if your council is thinking about moving to .gov.uk, please engage with the helper service as soon as possible to benefit from the funding and support to switching. INFORMATION PAGE - .gov.uk domains | SALC Website
Suffolk Community Awards – SALC judging for nominations received has been completed and we’ll be celebrating with the winners on Tuesday 24th September – a press release the following day will announce the winners. If you didn't nominate this year, there is always next year to consider. Click on this link to visit the Suffolk Community Awards website.