Issue - meetings

Sunnica Energy Farm - Consultation Process

Meeting: 11/02/2020 - Cabinet (Item 102)

102 Sunnica Energy Farm: Consultation Process pdf icon PDF 540 KB

Report No: CAB/WS/20/019

Portfolio Holder: Cllr Andy Drummond       Lead Officer: David Collinson

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

That:-

1.           The decision making in respect of the formal stages of the development process for the Sunnica Energy Farm be in accordance with the table at paragraph 2.7 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/019 (as amended); and

 

2.       The Council’s Scheme of Delegation be amended to include delegated authority to Officers to discharge the requirements attached to any Order granted, monitor the implementation of the Order, take any necessary enforcement action and determine any non-material and material amendment applications.

 

Minutes:

(Report No: CAB/WS/20/019)

 

The Cabinet considered this report which explained that the Sunnica Energy Farm was a scheme for the installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) generating panels and on-site energy storage facilities across two sites within Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.  The proposal would include the infrastructure associated with the required connection to the national grid, including an extension to the Burwell National Grid Substation.

 

Councillor Andy Drummond, Portfolio Holder for Regulatory, drew relevant issues to the attention of Cabinet and explained that West Suffolk Council were a formal consultee and needed to decide how to respond to the consultations and various formal stages of the process.  It was being proposed for the regulatory responses to be executive decisions and, therefore, to be agreed by Cabinet, Portfolio Holders or Officers.

 

The scheme was defined as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure project as an onshore generating station in England, exceeding 50MW and an application for a Development Consent Order must be made by the applicant to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS).

 

Councillor Drummond explained that paragraph 2.7 of the report set out the expected decisions required and known timescales.  Since the publication of the report, the timescales had now been amended as follows:

 

-   Response to Statement of Community Consultation (now March 2020)

-   Response to Statutory Consultation (now June/July 2020)

-   Draft and comments on the Statement of Common Ground (now late Autumn 2020)

-    Preparation and submission of a Local Impact Report (now early 2021)

 

Any decision making would need to be accompanied by local member(s) and Cabinet member briefings.  Regular updates had been provided to local Members, including engagement in the informal consultation response provided in the Summer of 2019.  This engagement would continue as the Council developed future formal responses.  Councillor Drummond also took the opportunity to remind of the briefing for Members which had been arranged for 12 February 2020 at 5pm. 

 

The general public’s main opportunities to have their say in the process run by the Planning Inspectorate would be at the Statutory Consultation Stage and during the Examination in Public.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That:-

 

1.           The decision making in respect of the formal stages of the development process for the Sunnica Energy Farm be in accordance with the table at paragraph 2.7 of Report No: CAB/WS/20/019 (as amended); and

 

2.       The Council’s Scheme of Delegation be amended to include delegated authority to Officers to discharge the requirements attached to any Order granted, monitor the implementation of the Order, take any necessary enforcement action and determine any non-material and material amendment applications.