Parish council launches legal challenge over 210-home development

A parish council has issued a pre-action letter against one of two district councils involved in an application to build 210 homes.

Thurston Parish Council has sent the letter prior to seeking judicial review to Mid Suffolk District Council over an application by Bloor Homes to build in the village.

Parish council clerk Vicky Waples said it believed the proposal was outside the area designated for development in an adopted neighbourhood plan and that Mid Suffolk’s planning committee had been misled in an officer’s report as to the weight it should give to that.

Thurston lso argues that the neighbourhood plan is a statutorily adopted development plan, which provides “new development in Thurston Parish shall be focused within the settlement boundary” and so applications beyond this should be rejected unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

An additional complication is that the scheme depends on highway works being agreed to by adjacent West Suffolk Council.

West Suffolk decided it was not prevented from deciding the application by the pre-action letter, but anyway found the proposal objectionable.

Councillors voted by 15-1 to reject the application contrary to officers’ advice, due to highway safety concerns, lack of cycling provision and conflicts with local planning policies.

Mid Suffolk declined to comment.

Mark Smulian