External links and web resources
We have a growing database of resources and external links that you may find useful. Select a category from the list below.
Note: Ipswich Borough Council are not responsible for the content of external Internet sites. Further information is available in the External Links Policy.
Categories
- Arts and entertainment
- Bereavement advice and support
- Business
- Charities and voluntary organisations
- Climate change and sustainability
- Cycling
- Disability Information
- Emergency planning
- Family support
- Financial advice and support
- Heritage
- Jobs and recruitment
- Legal support
- Planning
- Public sector organisations
- Utilities
- Volunteering
- Waste and Recycling
- Wildlife, parks and open spaces
- Young people
Arts and entertainment
Amplifier - Music for Life
Amplifier sessions are open jam sessions for young people which take place at the CSV Media Clubhouse in Ipswich. Sessions are run by two musicians and aim to encourage young people to develop their skills in live performances.
artsipswich.info
A comprehensive directory of arts organisations and groups ordered by art form.
DanceEast
DanceEast is the national dance agency for the eastern region, based in the Jerwood DanceHouse on Ipswich Waterfront. DanceEast brings world-class performance dance to the region, as well as running a variety of classes, workshops and short courses for the local community.
Eastern Angles
Eastern Angles is the regional touring theatre company for the East of England, based at the Sir John Mills Theatre in Ipswich.
Ipswich Arts Association
The Ipswich Arts Association supports the work of arts organisations and individual artists in Ipswich and the surrounding area.
Ipswich Film Theatre Trust
The Ipswich Film Theatre is a community-based two screen cinema in the basement of the Ipswich Corn Exchange in King Street specialising in independent and world cinema.
New Wolsey Theatre
The New Wolsey Theatre, based on Civic Drive in Ipswich, offers a dynamic programme of theatre, live performances and projects, for the people of Suffolk and surrounding areas.
Pulse fringe festival
The New Wolsey Theatre's annual fringe festival brings new and cutting edge work from the UK and beyond to Ipswich.
Red Rose Chain
Red Rose Chain is a dynamic theatre and film company based in Ipswich who work with the community to produce film and theatre productions around key issues. Each summer, they host an exciting Shakespeare production in Rendlesham Forest.
St Lawrence Centre
This Grade 2* listed building has been restored to its former glory and hosts the St Lawrence Centre Café. The space is also available to hire for functions and events and has regular art displays by local artists.
St Peter's by the Waterfront
This historic church has been converted into a centre for music and the arts and is home to the Ipswich Hospital Band. The venue hosts regular concerts and is also available to hire.
Suffolk Craft Society
The Suffolk Craft Society promotes the value and importance of contemporary crafts and supports individual craftspeople in the creation of their work. The Society has a permanent retail outlet in the Town Hall Galleries in the centre of Ipswich.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO)
The RPO has a special relationship with the town of Ipswich and its regular touring programme often returns to the Regent Theatre for concerts and shows.
The St Nicholas Centre
This converted church is now a conference and event space in the heart of Ipswich, fully equipped and suitable for events from conferences and training to concerts and wedding receptions.
Bereavement advice and support
Bereavement Advice Centre
The Bereavement Advice Centre website provides support and advice on what to do when someone dies.
Funeral Inspirations
Funeral Inspirations offer ideas and information to those who are are thinking about planning a funeral, want to know more about wills and probate, or want advice about what to do after a death.
Business
Business Debtline
A business helpline providing free, confidential and independent advice on how to deal with debt problems.
Business Link East
Business Link is a government-funded service designed to promote enterprise. They offer help and support whether you are already running or growing a business, or just starting out.
Federation of Small Businesses
The Federation of Small Businesses is the UK's largest campaigning pressure group, promoting and protecting the interests of the self-employed and woners of small firms.
HM Revenue & Customs
HM Revenue & Customs ensure the correct tax is paid at the right time, whether this relates to payment of taxes received by the department or entitlement to benefits paid.
Ipswich & Suffolk Small Business Association (ISSBA)
ISSBA is a friendly and very active, non-profit making organisation which is dedicated to the support of small and new businesses in the county.
Ipswich Business Directory
IpswichDirectory.com is a locally based and independent business directory with over 5,000 listings from accountants to vets practices.
Ipswich Junior Chamber
Membership of Ipswich Junior Chamber is open to all young professionals in the Ipswich area who would like to meet like-minded people and develop business relationships that can last the duration of their careers.
VentureNavigator
VentureNavigator is an online skills assessment aimed at helping businesses and individuals (including graduates) maximise their skills and increase profitability and employability. The assessment is designed to tease out areas of focus for your CV and will highlight areas where you could improve to develop a more rounded skill set, as well as suggesting relevant support and training.
Charities and voluntary organisations
Age Concern Suffolk
An independent local charity working with and for senior citizens in Suffolk.
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross is a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. They run various events throughout the year, including walking, trekking, bike rides, runs, marathons, parachute jumps and abseils, to raise valuable funds.
Citizen's Advice Bureau
An independent voluntary organisation offering a comprehensive, confidential and free information, advice and advocacy service.
Epilepsy Society
The Epilepsy Society are the leading national epilepsy medical charity working for everyone affected by epilepsy, through our cutting edge research, awareness campaigns and expert care.
Shelter
Shelter is a charity that works to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing. The advice pages on their website offer information for anyone with a housing-related problem.
The Fairtrade Foundation
The Fairtrade Foundation works with businesses, community groups and individuals to improve the trading position of producer organisations and to deliver sustainable livelihoods for farmers, workers and their communities.
Climate change and sustainability
Energy Saving Trust
The Energy Saving Trust are an independent, UK-based organisation focused on promoting action that leads to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions - a key contributor to man-made climate change. They offer free advice and information for people across the UK looking to save energy, conserve water and reduce waste.
Suffolk: Creating the Greenest County
Suffolk: Creating the Greenest County is an aspiration that involves the whole county in responding to climate change and enhancing the natural and historic environment.
Warm Front
Warm Front offer grants for energy efficiency and heating measures if you are in receipt of means tested or disability benefits and if you are elderly or have children under the age of 16.
Cycling
Cycleroutesuk.com
Cycleroutesuk.com is a new website set up by enthusiastic cyclists for other cyclists. It suggests cycle routes around the UK and allows users to share their knowledge and experience by adding routes to the site themselves.
Sustrans
Sustrans is the UK's leading sustainable transport charity that works on practical, innovative ways of dealing with the transport challenges that affect us all.
Disability Information
DisabledGo
DisabledGo provides online access guides to over 80,000 venues across the UK and Ireland. It offers detailed information about access to all kinds of places such as cinemas, hotels, hospitals, colleges, sports grounds, restaurants, council offices, parks, tourist attractions.
Emergency planning
Suffolk Resilience
Suffolk Resilience Forum (SRF) provides co-ordination on a countywide basis in emergency situations.
Family support
BeGrand.net
BeGrand.net is funded by the Department for Education and recognises the crucial role grandparents can play in a child’s life. It offers information for grandparents to help them support families and children, as well as offering support to grandparents themselves and providing advice to help them support each other.
Financial advice and support
Debt Advice Foundation
The Debt Advice Foundation is a registered national debt advice charity (number 1095705). The website offers free access to a range of self help tools and practical guides on how to manage money effectively, budget, and negotiate directly with creditors.
Gregory Pennington
Gregory Pennington are one of the UK’s largest and longest-established providers of debt management, offering free, no-obligation debt advice.
National Debt Line
Free confidential and independent advice on how to deal with debt problems.
Turn2us
Turn2us offer a range of free services through their website and helpline to help people access information on welfare benefits and grant giving charities.
Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage is the Government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment. Their role is to champion and care for the historic environment.
Ipswich Building Preservation Trust
Ipswich Building Preservation Trust acts as a 'repairer of last resort' in renovating problem, dilapidated buildings within the Borough that might otherwise not be repaired.
Jobs and recruitment
Employment4students
Employment4students is a jobsite dedicated to helping students and young people find work. It specialises in advertising student jobs, part time jobs, internships and graduate jobs.
Job Centre Plus
Jobcentre Plus is a government agency supporting people of working age from welfare into work, and helping employers to fill their vacancies.
Myipswichjobs.co.uk
MyIpswichJobs.co.uk is a site purely for Ipswich and Suffolk, with hundreds of local jobs online. Local jobseekers can register and apply for jobs, create job alerts and get free career advice.
Legal support
Community Legal Advice
Free, confidential and independent legal advice.
Planning
Planning Portal
Planning Portal is the UK Government's online planning and building regulations resource. The site provides information about planning and building regulations, applying for planning permission, appealing against a decision and finding out about developments near you.
Royal Town Planning Institute
The RTPI is a dynamic organisation leading the way in the creation of places that work now and in the future.
Public sector organisations
Babergh District Council
Babergh District Council is one of the seven district and borough councils in Suffolk.
Colchester Borough Council
Ipswich Borough Council and Colchester Borough Council work closely together on many initiatives, in particular through the Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service.
Direct Gov
Direct Gov is the official UK government website for citizens, providing information and online services for the public all in one place.
East of England Local Government Association
The East of England LGA is a new voluntary association set up by the 52 local authorities in the region following the abolition of the East of England Regional Assembly. It launched on 1st April 2010.
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a UK government agency concerned mainly with rivers, flooding, and pollution across the whole of England and Wales. The website provides public information and educational materials.
Forest Heath District Council
Forest Heath District Council is one of the seven district and borough councils in Suffolk.
Mid Suffolk District Council
Mid Suffolk District Council is one of the seven district and borough councils in Suffolk.
NHS Suffolk
NHS Suffolk is the primary care trust for the county of Suffolk (excluding Waveney). It aims to improve health and wellbeing and works with local authorities and other partners to reduce health inequalities and helps to develop sustainable communities.
St Edmundsbury Borough Council
St Edmundsbury Borough Council is one of the seven district and borough councils in Suffolk.
Suffolk Coastal District Council
Suffolk Coastal District Council is one of the seven district and borough councils in Suffolk.
Suffolk Constabulary
The Suffolk Constabulary website provides information on the force including news, policing plan, crime reduction, recruitment and working in partnership with the community.
Suffolk County Council
Service delivery in Suffolk is shared between seven Borough and District Councils and Suffolk County Council. The Boroughs and Districts are responsible for services such as housing benefits, environmental health, planning, leisure, recycling, arts and culture, refuse collection, parks and street cleaning. The County Council provides services such as education, libraries, waste disposal and adult social care.
Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service
Suffolk Fire Service responds to emergencies such as fires, and rescues including road traffic collisions. It also deals with a wide range of non-fire and rescue incidents including chemical incidents. The service has a key role in educating the community in relation to fire safety in the home and providing guidance on fire safety in commercial buildings.
Valuation Office Agency
The Valuation Office Agency of the Inland Revenue sets the Business Rates and Council Tax for all properties.
Utilities
Anglian Water
Anglian Water are responsible for public sewerage and sewage treatment in Ipswich.
Volunteering
Junction 49
Junction 49 is a social networking website, specifically designed for young people aged 16-25 who want to make a difference by volunteering. Young people are able to create their own opportunities by setting up projects around issues that really matter to them. If they don't want to set up a project of their own they can join and offer to help on existing projects created by their peers.
Waste and Recycling
The Giveacar scheme
The Giveacar scheme raises money for charities by organising the donation of unwanted cars. Working in conjunction with a nationwide salvage operator, they collect any car/vehicle, anywhere in the UK, before de-polluting, recycling and disposing of them in accordance with DVLA and Environmental Agency guidelines. A donation, equivalent to the scrap metal value of the car, is then made to charity. This is a free service.
Wildlife, parks and open spaces
Biodiversity Duty (NERC Act 2006) - Suffolk Biodiversity Partnership
This website provides down-to earth, practical ideas and case studies to help protect priority species and habitats. It explains what 'biodiversity' is and what obligations public bodies have.
Holywells Birds
Holywells Birds provides information about Holywells Park and its wildlife. The site includes contributions from local birdwatchers, photographers and residents.
Natural England
Natural England is the government's advisor on the natural environment. We provide practical advice, grounded in science, on how best to safeguard England's natural wealth for the benefit of everyone.
RSPB
The RSPB is the UK charity working to secure a healthy environment for birds and other wildlife, helping to create a better world for us all. They work for the conservation of wild birds, other wildlife and the places in which they live in a wide variety of ways.
Suffolk Coasts and Heaths Unit
The Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is one of Britain's finest landscapes. Located on the coast of East Anglia, it covers 150 square miles and includes wildlife-rich wetlands, ancient heaths, windswept shingle beaches and historic towns and villages.
Suffolk Ornithological Group
SOG is the Group for people interested in the birds of Suffolk, and provides a network and a voice for birdwatchers in the county.
Suffolk Wildlife Trust
SWT's aim is to create a Living Landscape where wildlife flourishes in our countryside, towns and villages. Their conservation advisors work with farmers and local communities to improve their land for wildlife and create networks of linked up habitat across Suffolk and they care for over 6500 acres of Suffolk's most precious wildlife habitat in over 50 nature reserves which are tranquil havens for everyone to enjoy.
Young people
Suffolk Youth and Connexions Service
Young people aged 13-19 (and up to 25 for those with additional needs) can access information, advice, help and support on a one-to-one basis or as part of a group, through the Suffolk Youth and Connexions Service.
