People and Place

This page contains information about our current projects, and links to relevant materials.

People and Place Plans

Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils are pleased to be able to offer this route for communities to find a constructive way to influence and change planning and develop a more community-led approach to places.

We recognise that so much is done in our communities by volunteers, without any input from us, and by members of the community who want the best for their place and the people within it.

This is offered as a way to enhance that work and the outcomes and will enable the Council to help support you to gain greater community engagement, increase ambitions for your place, and produce a plan which can be used to influence future decisions for design and wellbeing.

We will work alongside communities, providing expert advice and practical workshops to support the skills you have, helping you to produce a plan which represents everyone in your community.

The resources below contain a toolkit and advice to support communities create a plan which identifies what makes their place special to them and to evidence and define their priorities:

Workshop options below

  • Workshop 1 - Understanding Planning
  • Workshop 2 - Community Engagement - Options and Preparation
  • Workshop 3 - Gathering and Assessing Evidence
  • Workshop 4 - Developing Proposals that add value and guide decisions

Conservation Area Appraisals

Local Planning Authorities have a statutory duty to identify areas that are of special architectural or historic interest, to preserve or enhance their character and appearance.

Such areas may vary in character, form and size, from small groups of historic buildings to major parts of towns.

These areas may contain listed buildings, but this is not always the case. It is often the sense of place created by different components such as unlisted traditional buildings, historic street patterns, trees, open spaces and views.

We are looking to update our current Conservation Area Appraisals. We wish to develop a new approach to the appraisal process, focusing on community engagement. This new approach aims to work with communities to form the appraisal and a management plan that is specific to their area.

Here are links to the formulated toolkits, as well as a glossary of terms that may be useful:

Community Engagement

These projects aim to have a wider reach and input from the community.

Here is an online questionnaire, as well as questions for children:

Useful Links