Call for inquiry into Babergh and Mid Suffolk planning

Burstall Parish Council and Community Alliance for a Rural Environment (CARE) Suffolk have jointly written a letter to Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Council outlining their reasons to call for an investigation. 

Complaints centre on Enso Energy's plans for a solar farm, which will be located in fields in Bramford, Burstall and Flowton, following its approval last year. 

CARE Suffolk is a group of residents representing Flowton, Burstall, Bramford Tye, Bramford, Somersham and Elmsett.

The six-page letter states: "Delegation of powers should not equate to abdication of responsibility, allowing even more decision-making authority being given to a planning department that in our view is not fit for purpose."

The solar farm was given the go-ahead last year (file image) (Image: Newsquest)

It adds that there are concerns officials "are not following correct process and best practice".

Eight key points which the parish council wants to be addressed were outlined in the letter.

A spokeswoman for Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Council said: "We will always try to work with our local communities to reach planning decisions that are fair, legally sound and in the best interests of our districts – but we must also determine planning applications in accordance with local plans and the National Policy Planning Framework. 

"Decisions may not always be welcomed, but that does not mean that procedure or policy has not been correctly followed."

A first letter, seen by this newspaper, was sent to Babergh and Mid Suffolk Council officials on March 6, 2023. 

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This highlighted the parish council's belief that it had "lost confidence" in the planning system.

After being acknowledged within five working days, under policies stated on the district council's website, a full response to the complaint must be provided within 10 working days by the relevant head of service.

This can be extended by up to 10 further days, should it be required. 

However, a response was not received during the allocated timeframe and it was escalated to a stage two complaint by Burstall Parish Council on April 11. 

The handling of the complaint was later escalated to the Local Government Ombudsman on May 19. 

An investigation by the Ombudsman found fault with the council's handling of the complaint, which was told to issue an apology to the complainant. 

This apology was received by the complainant in July 2024, according to documents.

It reads: "I would like to sincerely apologise for the failure to adhere to our formal complaint process and I understand that if we had responded in time then you would not have had to spend time raising formal complaints through the various stages, and ultimately sending a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

"This lack of our complaint response has been raised in our leadership team meeting and we also discussed this with officers in our “team brief” meeting. Officers were told about our need to respond to complaints or assist with a formal complaint in time."

The council spokeswoman added: “We have written to Burstall Parish Council to respond to each of their concerns in turn and have again extended an invitation to meet to discuss any outstanding issues with them.

“In the meantime, our planning department continues to regularly outperform national targets for deciding applications on time and for the low number of decisions overturned at appeal.”