West Suffolk Council no longer oppose the Sunnica solar farm

In an astonishing about-turn, the Labour Leader of West Suffolk Council's Labour & Independent "Progressive Alliance", that runs the council, today said they no longer oppose the Sunnica scheme.

Today, I was intending to write about the decision by West Suffolk District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to withdraw from the legal action they were taking jointly with us at Suffolk County Council and East Cambridgeshire District Council, against the Secretary of State’s decision to approve the Sunnica solar farm. I will still focus on this but, after getting up early to speak to BBC Radio Suffolk’s breakfast presenter, Wayne Bavin, I was followed on the show by the Leader of West Suffolk District Council, Councillor Cliff Waterman. In what was an astonishing interview, Cliff went on to admit that the Council’s ruling “Progressive Alliance” comprising, in the main, Independent and Labour members (alongside a solitary Green and Lib Dem), no longer oppose the Sunnica solar farm and even suggested they never opposed it at all.

You can listen to these two admissions below:

In answer to the clear question about whether West Suffolk Council still oppose the scheme, Cliff says “no” and then goes on to say “we didn't oppose it, we had some objections to the scheme”.

This is quite the reversal of position from West Suffolk’s Labour and Independent “Progressive Alliance” and a position that has never been adopted or voted on in public. In fact, the last publicly stated position from the Council was prior to the May 2023 District Council elections when there was still a Conservative administration. Later in the interview, he says that the approval of Sunnica “puts Suffolk in a really good position”. There are, of course, jobs and skills benefits from some of the energy projects coming forward in Suffolk but few, if any, of those are associated with NSIP scale solar. There is a clear question here of public accountability and transparency - simply put, when did the Independent and Labour administration decide they no longer opposed the Sunnica scheme and why wasn’t this decision taken in public?

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

This apparent about-turn gives added context to what I expected to write about today, the withdrawal of West Suffolk Council and Cambridgeshire County Council from our joint legal action.

This action was on a key but narrow point of principle - that local councils were being shortchanged by the Secretary of State’s decision and not adequately compensated for the work we do discharging conditions attached to the scheme. During the examination, the local authorities put forward representations on what fair compensation would be and stated that the applicant, Sunnica, was not being sufficient in their proposals. The Examining Authority seemed to side with the councils in their judgement but the Development Consent Order (DCO) as presented to the Secretary of State didn’t reflect this. The Secretary of State, in making his decision, didn’t address this and thus, seemingly without consideration in what was an extremely hasty decision, left local councils inadequately compensated. In such an event, it’s then left to local councils - and therefore local taxpayers - to foot the bill. Given developers stand to make a huge amount of money from these schemes, it’s only right they and not local residents pick up the tab. This is all the more important in Suffolk where, as I’ve written previously, a raft of similar solar projects have been given connection offers.

In withdrawing from the joint legal action, West Suffolk District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council made it unviable for us to proceed for two reasons. First, a fifty-fifty split of costs between East Cambridgeshire District Council and Suffolk County Council was too much for East Cambridgeshire, who are a smaller authority than West Suffolk. Second, it would, therefore, have left Suffolk County Council trying to pursue this action alone. We considered this but our legal advice was as the local authorities adversely affected (ie the District Councils who discharge the vast majority of conditions) were not seeking to challenge the decision, we were highly unlikely to get permission to bring a Judicial Review (JR). In short, West Suffolk District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council killed the JR by withdrawing and making it too expensive and less credible.

Was this their plan all along and why did they initially join us in a pre-action protocol letter? I’m at a loss to explain. However, the cynic in me finds it hard to get beyond the thought that Labour councillors who form part of the ruling coalition on Cambridgeshire County Council and lead West Suffolk District Council’s “Progressive Alliance”, with independent colleagues, may have found it increasingly difficult to so publicly go against a new Labour government and Labour Secretary of State. The two councils will, of course, say we may have lost the legal action - this is true of any legal action but we were assured we had a reasonable chance of success. They will also say that it was possible we’d go through all of this only for the Secretary of State to make the same decision again. Again, this was a potential outcome but so too was the reverse - that the councils were adequately compensated. Fear of a negative outcome should not prevent us standing up for local communities and all of these outcomes were equally possible when we first sent the pre-action protocol letter.

This debate over fees and Planning Performance Agreements (PPAs) will rage on in the NSIP space and we need to continue to press for adequate compensation for local authorities. Developers will clearly favour a minimal fee arrangement that doesn’t address all of the costs local councils incur. It remains to be seen if the new Labour government will side with developers, as early decisions seem to indicate, or listen to us.

Despite the Independent and Labour Councillors that run West Suffolk District Council turning their back on local communities and now seemingly giving their public support to the Sunnica solar farm, there is still some hope. The Say No to Sunnica action group are continuing with their JR which, unlike ours, has the potential to quash the scheme. JRs from community groups are very difficult to mount and you can contribute to their fundraiser here should you wish to do so. I for one hope they are successful - as I have repeatedly said, the Sunnica solar farm is the worst NSIP we’ve ever dealt with.

You can listen to my full interview with Wayne Bavin on BBC Radio Suffolk here.