Your council

Suffolk: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Suffolk County Council: County (upper tier), England, East of England. GOV.UK lists it as a county council. ONS code E10000029.

Council website

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Suffolk for 2026–27: £1,731.69. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

Westbourne Academy (secondary) — open, but proposed to close; reason recorded: fresh start; proposed date 31 December 2026

In the last twelve months: 12 opened (8 academy converter, 4 new provision), 11 closed (8 academy converter, 2 closure, 1 result of amalgamation/merger)

Acorn Cottage The Lodge — closed; reason recorded: result of amalgamation/merger, 24 August 2026
Carlton Colville Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 December 2025
Colneis Junior School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 December 2025
Fairfield Infant School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 December 2025
Honington Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 October 2025
Hopton Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 30 September 2025
St Edmund's Catholic Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 August 2026
St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 August 2026
St Mark's Catholic Primary School, Ipswich (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 October 2025
Stoke College — closed; reason recorded: closure, 1 July 2026
The Meadows Montessori School — closed; reason recorded: closure, 16 December 2025
Abbey Gardens School — open; reason recorded: new provision, 22 May 2026
Carlton Colville Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 January 2026
Colneis Junior School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 January 2026
Fairfield Infant School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 January 2026
Honington Church of England Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 November 2025
Hopton Church of England Primary Academy (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 October 2025
Pushforward Primary School — open; reason recorded: new provision, 19 February 2026
Pushforward Secondary School — open; reason recorded: new provision, 24 March 2026
Redstone Hall School — open; reason recorded: new provision, 11 February 2026
St Edmund's Catholic Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 September 2026
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 September 2026
St Mark's Catholic Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 November 2025

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Suffolk reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Suffolk: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£453.6 million
Highways and transport services	£40.4 million
Children's social care	£178.5 million
Adult social care	£394.2 million
Public health	£42.7 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£2.4 million
Cultural and related services	£12.5 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£21.4 million
Planning and development services	£364,000
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	£37.9 million
Central services	£13.7 million
Other services	£13.5 million
Total service expenditure	£1,211.0 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Suffolk in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 786,231 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 45 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £24,802 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £610 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 24.7% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 2.8% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £280,742 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 7.7 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 61.7 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 62.1 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 5.4 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 82.2% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 193.7 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 31,125 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

70 seats in 2026. Run by: Reform UK, with a majority. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Reform UK 41, Green Party (E&W) 13, Conservative and Unionist 9, Labour Party 3, Independent / Other 2, Liberal Democrats 2.

Next scheduled council election: 2 May 2030.

All 70 councillors, by ward

Dylan Roques (Green Party (E&W)) — Abbeygate & Minden
Rachael Tecklenberg (Reform UK) — Aldeburgh & Leiston
Beccy Hopfensperger (Conservative and Unionist) — Barrow & Thingoe
Ash Lever (Green Party (E&W)) — Beccles & Kessingland
Chris Cox (Reform UK) — Beccles & Kessingland
Morgan Brobyn (Reform UK) — Belstead Hills
David Hill (Reform UK) — Bixley
Harry Richardson (Conservative and Unionist) — Blackbourn
John Matthews (Reform UK) — Blyth Estuary
Gary Keogh (Reform UK) — Bosmere
Tim Kent (Reform UK) — Brandon
Rupert Tonkin-Galvin (Reform UK) — Bridge
Christopher Hudson (Reform UK) — Brook
Peter Aiano (Green Party (E&W)) — Bungay
Elaine Bryce (Conservative and Unionist) — Carlford
Richard Read (Reform UK) — Carlton & Whitton
June Mummery (Reform UK) — Carlton Colville
Bobby Bennett (Conservative and Unionist) — Clare
Darius Laws (Conservative and Unionist) — Constable
Kerrie Turner (Reform UK) — Cornard & Sudbury East
Robert Lindsay (Green Party (E&W)) — Cosford
Simon Aalders (Reform UK) — Eastgate & Moreton Hall
Andrew Burton (Reform UK) — Exning & Newmarket
Michael Hadwen (Reform UK) — Felixstowe Clifflands
Tony Love (Reform UK) — Felixstowe Maritime
Stephen Molyneux (Green Party (E&W)) — Framlingham & Wickham Market
Ryan Procter (Reform UK) — Gainsborough
Stuart Allen (Reform UK) — Gipping
Asa Downing (Reform UK) — Gipping Valley
Chris Smith (Reform UK) — Gunton
Simon Dowling (Green Party (E&W)) — Hadleigh
Annette Dunning (Green Party (E&W)) — Halesworth
Robin Baxter-Ayling (Reform UK) — Harbour
Richard Rout (Conservative and Unionist) — Hardwick
Paul Bains (Reform UK) — Hartismere
Luke O\'Brien (Reform UK) — Haverhill East & Rural
Joe Mason (Conservative and Unionist) — Haverhill North West & Withersfield
Paul Littman (Reform UK) — Haverhill South
Sally Mittuch (Green Party (E&W)) — Hoxne & Eye
Debbie McCallum (Conservative and Unionist) — Kesgrave
Paul Reeder (Reform UK) — Kirkley & Pakefield
Patti Mulcahy (Reform UK) — Martlesham
John Nunn (Independent / Other) — Melford
Louis Busuttil (Reform UK) — Mildenhall
Adrian Whittle (Reform UK) — Newmarket & Red Lodge
Paul Sutton (Reform UK) — Oulton
Trevor Lailey (Reform UK) — Oulton Broad & Normanston
Vicky Armstrong (Reform UK) — Peninsula
Tim Buttle (Reform UK) — Priory Heath
Don Waldron (Reform UK) — Row Heath
Martin Cook (Labour Party) — Rushmere
Alistair Jeffreys (Reform UK) — Rushmere St Andrew
Julia Ewart (Independent / Other) — Saxmundham & District
Adele Cook (Labour Party) — St Clement’s
Inga Lockington (Liberal Democrats) — St Margaret’s
Martin Robinson (Reform UK) — St Olaves & Tollgate
Philip Faircloth-Mutton (Reform UK) — Stour Valley
Mark Barber (Reform UK) — Stowmarket East
Keith Welham (Green Party (E&W)) — Stowmarket West
Laura Smith (Green Party (E&W)) — Sudbury West
James Patchett (Green Party (E&W)) — Thedwastre North
Matt Bentley (Green Party (E&W)) — Thedwastre South
Matthew Hicks (Conservative and Unionist) — Thredling
Andrew Stringer (Green Party (E&W)) — Upper Gipping
Tristan Gale (Reform UK) — Walton & Trimleys
David Hurlbut (Reform UK) — Westbourne
Colin Kreidewolf (Labour Party) — Westgate
Tony Gould (Reform UK) — Whitton
Jonathan Ramsay (Reform UK) — Wilford
Ruth Leach (Liberal Democrats) — Woodbridge

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.