Consultations and Projects

The Parish Council works hard to promote, respond to and improve a wide range of issues in Wickhambrook. The last year has been difficult for everyone with the pandemic, and we wanted to create an opportunity to celebrate some of our achievements over the past year, and to look forward to some ongoing and new projects in the parish, working more closely as a team.

Recent Achievements

• New multi-play unit at Bury Road Pocket play park
• Refurbishing the Cemetery Gates & a new Memorial Bench—come and join us at 2pm at the War Memorial for the cutting of the ribbon.
• Improved drainage at the end of Footpath 25, and improved steps and handrail access from the Recreation ground
• Upgrading of bins on the Recreation Ground, in the Cemetery and at Coltsfoot Green
• Installation of a new “Willow Heart” on the village sign to mark the kindness of residents in the pandemic year. Join us at 3pm for presentation of the Alf Hick’s Biscuit Barrel, and cutting of the ribbon.

Road Safety Working Group

Over the past year, the Wickhambrook PC has been working closely with Wickhambrook Primary Academy and volunteers in a working group to look at possible options and solutions for improved road safety, especially around Wickhambrook Primary Academy.

This has involved students in all year groups, who have competed to design signs to encourage drivers to slow down through the village—the winning entries will be presented with a prize, and entries will be on display at the open day.

Speed Reduction in Wickhambrook

Quiet Lanes Suffolk

Quiet Lanes Suffolk: www.quietlanessuffolk.co.uk

A volunteer led project supporting parishes across the county to identify and designate suitable rural lanes as Quiet Lanes to make them safer for people to use for exercise and more active forms of travel.

Wickhambrook Parish has a wide network of smaller lanes, many of which would be suitable to be designated as Quiet Lanes, if there is support from local residents.

UPDATE 19 October 2022

In August 2021 Designation notices were posted, and parish letters and maps delivered to all affected households in August 2021. Following this, Suffolk County Council had to review all the responses and prepare reports to Suffolk County Council Cabinet for sign off.

There were no changes to the final routes put forward by the parish council (shown below) and a Designation Order was published by Suffolk County Council on 24th August this year.

The Quiet Lanes team has been working with Suffolk County Council highways, who have now published a scheme for the posts identifying Quiet Lanes in the parish. You can see the position of the posts marking the access and egress to the lanes by viewing this pdf:

Locations on Baxters Green and  Genesis Green have been included in the proposals for Ousden for practicality purposes.

The Quiet Lanes Suffolk team has decided that parish councils will need to make their own arrangements for the installation of the new sign plates. At its September meeting the Parish Council approved funding for the necessary equipment to be provided to parish volunteers for this purpose (you can see the report here).

New posts will be installed by Suffolk Highways and new sign plates will be supplied to parish councils in due course by Quiet Lane Suffolk.  If you would like to help with installing the sign plates when they are available, please do contact the clerk, Hilary Workman – parishclerk@wickhambrook.org.uk.

UPDATE 28 September 2021

Wave 3 (this includes Wickhambrook)

Representations have been received by SCC Legal and any objections will need to be resolved.  This does take time so please avoid sending in individual emails requesting an update to the QLS team.  Usually this will require contact with the Parish Council involved.   QLS will update all Wave 3 parishes as soon as they have news, and the clerk will keep the projets page updated.

UPDATE 10 August 2021

The Community Engagement Day on 3rd July at the Memorial Social Centre was well supported, with over sixty people attending and looking at the displays of proposed Quiet Lanes.  We had some really good feedback, and this enabled the parish council to lobby further for the lane from Nunnery Green to Boyden End becoming a Quiet Lane.  Thanks to all your comments, we were successful!

At its meeting on 22nd July, the parish council considered a further report on Quiet Lanes which looked at the feedback received on all the proposed lanes it had nominated in February this year, to narrow down the nominated routes to a final nine (the parish council is making a voluntary contribution of £50 per route, with one free route).

The routes decided on were:

The Quiet Lanes Team has subsequently advised us that the route from Boyden End to Nunnery Green has now been extended all the way to Meeting Green, as the parish had originally requested, and so many supported in their feedback.  As a result, the Quiet Lane Network, in Wickhambrook, (if designated by Suffolk County Council), will look like this:

Housing Needs Survey

UPDATE 10 September 2021

The parish council has carefully considered the agreement proposed by Community Action Suffolk (CAS), the provider of the survey and subsequent summary and full report.  On reflection, the council has decided not to enter into the agreement, which it considers would put the parish council at risk of a large financial liability, and constrain the council’s intention to make full use of information from the report to inform the development of its Neighbourhood Plan.  Councillors do not consider this to be in the interests of the parish community.

The draft minutes of the extra-ordinary meeting at which this decision was reached on 8th September will be available shortly.

The parish council will continue to explore options to undertake a housing needs survey in the future as part of the wider Neighbourhood Planning project.

Please address any queries to Hilary Workman, the clerk, at parishclerk@wickahmbrook.org.uk .

Refurbishment of Games Area and Skate Park

In May ’21 a storm caused some significant damage to the boarding of the Games area. The parish council was already looking into the possible re-surfacing of the games area and skatepark, and consequently reviewed its options.

To date, the parish council has:
• Held a working party to remove the old boarding surrounding the old Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA)
• Consulted on Options at a Community Engagement Day in July 2021
• Considered a report on re-development of the MUGA space taking into account responses at the Community Engagement Event
• Put on a Street Art Workshop to overpaint old graffiti and brighten up the space (is it possible to insert a slideshow of pictures here?)
• Identified options for re-development based on an outdoor fitness area (including both low level cardiovascular workouts and sport street workout
• Installed new bow top fencing to the old MUGA space

Any new development would have significant cost implications for the parish council, and whilst it has seed funding set aside in Earmarked Reserves, the anticipated cost of the mid range option identified in the report considered at its January meeting was in the region of £25,000. This would require not only significant fundraising through grants, donations and sponsorship, but require full tendering for any contract under its Financial Regulations. In order to demonstrate the demand for such a proposal, the parish council therefore decided to re-consult with residents at a further community engagement event, which was held at the Wickhambrook Fete and Flower Show on 9th July.

A summary of the feedback at this event was reported at the July meeting of the parish council. Responses at the event (which were not statistically significant) are summarised below:

Outdoor Fitness Area:
Give back the basket ball court

Six Acres & Recreation Ground
Goal Posts
Secure dog area on field for exercise etc.
Secure dog area for exercise and training
A wall to kick a football against

Skate Park
Make the skate park floor useable

The meeting therefore considered that there was not currently enough support from parish residents for outdoor fitness, and asked the clerk to undertake a further consultation on options for recreation space in the parish which would take into account the feedback received at the July community engagement event.