Probably the best village in the world
Bucklesham Parish Council has been campaigning for over 25 years to get the speed limit on the C375 Brightwell Road reduced. The speed limit on this road, as it passes through Bucklesham past the Primary School, is 60mph. However, as it passes through Brightwell village, the same road is 30mph.
The campaign has seen numerous administrations of Bucklesham Parish Council lobby many County Councillors over the years, and although at times we felt we were actually getting somewhere, the requests went on to be refused.
In January 2024, we submitted our lengthy Report for Speed Limit Reduction on Brightwell Road to Suffolk Highways. The report took considerable time to compile and we felt this was our last throw of the dice so we put everything into it - but unfortunately, once again this was refused.
However, we did not let a little matter of 25 years worth of 'No's stop us, and along with the Bucklesham School Community, we continued the fight.
With the help of our Highways Liaison Engineer, Josh White, and support from Suffolk Coastal's Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP, in December 2025 we finally won approval for the speed limit to be reduced.
Despite many schools have a '20's Plenty' zone outside their school, and the C375 Brightwell Road having a 30mph speed limit in Brightwell, Suffolk Highways have only agreed to reduce the speed limit to 40mph and not the 30mph that we had been campaigning for.
This may not be the result we wanted, but it is at least a reduction from 60mph. The cost of reducing the speed limit has been estimated at around £12,000, and this has to be paid for by the Parish Council - this is not a cost that Suffolk Highways will cover. Luckily though, East Suffolk Council's Community Partnership Board have agreed to give the Parish Council £10,000 to go towards this cost. We are extremely grateful to Chloe Lee, our Communities Officer at East Suffolk, for all her help with this. The rest of the cost will come from the Parish Council's CIL funds.
The Parish Council want to thank everyone who has helped over the years to finally achieve our aim - to make our roads safer for village school children - which is surely what we all want.
