Suffolk Coast News is an independent news and information site for the Suffolk coast. We read the public record and publish what is in it, and we keep the practical local information accurate.
A coast, not a town
There is no single town at the centre of this patch, and we do not pretend otherwise. We cover Woodbridge and Melton, Wickham Market and Framlingham, Saxmundham, Leiston and Aldeburgh, and the villages and river walls between them, as one connected strip. It is the way people here actually live: shopping in one town, working in another, driving to a third for the doctor.
The council
East Suffolk Council was created in 2019 by merging Suffolk Coastal and Waveney, and it is based at Melton, which is a village rather than a town. Its area runs well beyond our patch, north to Southwold, Beccles and Lowestoft and south to Felixstowe, so our service and council pages cover the whole authority even though our reporting focus is the coast strip. Suffolk County Council runs roads, schools and social care, and we say which body a decision belongs to.
What we work from
The council’s planning register and committee papers, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood and coastal warnings for the Deben, the Alde and the coast itself, and company filings in The Gazette. Coastal erosion and flooding are permanent subjects here and we report the official position on them rather than the version going round.
Council reorganisation
In March 2026 the government decided that East Suffolk would become the core of a new Central and Eastern Suffolk unitary council from 1 April 2028. On 7 September 2026 that decision was withdrawn and the programme put under review, so East Suffolk Council carries on and the May 2027 elections are for the existing councils. What the withdrawal means for the coast.
Updated 27 September 2026: this section previously said the March 2026 decision would take effect in 2028. That decision has since been withdrawn.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@suffolkcoastnews.co.uk with anything we should be covering, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections are made quickly and noted on the page.
Suffolk Coast News is part of the GOB Media Group. We are independent of the council and of everyone else we report on.