A decision on grants applications totalling £4,500 was deferred until after the upcoming elections after a senior monitoring officer declared as Hadleigh Together is a political party, its councillors should not be agreeing grants during purdah.

Hadleigh's town council, chaired by Rolf Beggerow, were told there was £20,000 in this year's pot for discretionary community grants and three items were up for consideration.

However, town clerk Wendy Brame suggested approving grants in the month of the pre-election period was not a good idea and Cllr Beggerow sought advice from Babergh monitoring officer Emily Yule who was at the meeting.

Mrs Yule advised councillors it was better to err on the side of caution and said: "You are impacted by the pre-election moratorium, or purdah as it is known, because you have vacancies that are being contested at this election. Typically the restrictions relate to the publicity activities of the council and particularly avoiding the use of public funds, or council resources, to promote, or be perceived to promote any candidate or party.

"Councils normally avoid issuing rants during this time because you can't do any publicity regarding issuing the grants. So it is a practical issue."

Although there are two independent councillors who are not affiliated to any group party, the town council is made up predominately of Hadleigh Together members, which is a constituted political party and records show they tend to vote accordingly.

The three grants with will come back for consideration are:

a. £3,000 to Hadleigh Food Bank to fund a secondhand van for the Charity.

b. £1,200 to Hadleigh in Bloom for two large Promenade Planters to make the High Street an attractive place to shop.

c. £300 to Suffolk Accident Rescue Service towards core costs.

There was also a request for Community Infrastructure Levy Funding by Hadleigh Parkside Pre-School towards the expansion of their pre-school facilities that was also deferred.

• Purdah is a connection (not a law) is the period in the United Kingdom between the announcement of an election and the formation of the new elected government. It affects civil servants, who must be politically impartial preventing central and local government from making announcements about any new or controversial government initiatives that could be seen to be advantageous to any candidates or parties in the forthcoming election.

Meanwhile, the new Hadleigh Town Council website has been praised by members of the public. You can find the [L]https://hadleightowncouncil.gov.uk[L+]new website here....[.L