Ashtons Legal could help Thurston Parish Council take Mid Suffolk District Council to court over Bloor Homes development off Ixworth Road

A High Court judge will decide whether a council should be put to trial over their decision to grant planning permission for a controversial 210-home development in Thurston.

Thurston Parish Council is looking to the higher authority in a last ditch effort to quash the decision made by Mid Suffolk District Council in December.

Respected law firm Ashtons Legal has taken up the case after the district council granted Bloor Homes permission to build the mixture of one, two, three, and four bed homes, as well as amenities, on land off Beyton Road.

Key to the argument is that in October 2019 the parish council published their ‘neighbourhood plan,’ a blueprint for how homes could be built in a sustainable manner without overwhelming the village infrastructure.

Parish council clerk Victoria Waples said Thurston has been subject to ‘great development pressure’ in recent years - which made the neighbourhood plan necessary.

“The parish council has consistently objected to the district council’s proposed strategy for the village as the (wider ranging) local plan has been developed,” she said.

By granting planning permission for this site the district council was seeking to undermine that process.

“We feel that the strategy should be properly tested as part of the local plan examination. By granting planning permission for this site the district council was seeking to undermine that process.

“We have therefore taken this action (in seeking the judicial review) to ensure that the local plan process takes its proper course.”

A judicial review is a convoluted and often expensive legal instrument which seeks to prove the process behind a decision was unlawful, rather than the decision itself.

A judge will now decide whether proceedings could go to trial - a verdict which could be made clear in eight weeks. Should trial commence, it represents one of the final opportunities in the planning process for the decision to be overturned. But if the judge throws the case out, the accuser could be liable to pay costs - which will be capped at £10,000 under the Aarhus case convention. The trial could possibly take several months, but Ashtons, who are locally-based in Bury St Edmunds, are confident about their chances should the battle go all the way.

Bob McGeady, of Ashtons Legal, said: “I have seen too often circumstances where larger councils look to dominate the planning process, to the detriment of small, local parish councils. Another challenge on similar grounds relating to a site in Woolpit was recently given the go-ahead to proceed to trial so we are hopeful of a positive outcome in this case."

A spokesperson for Mid Suffolk District Council said: “Our council acknowledges the legal challenge lodged by Thurston Parish Council, and will now consider the issues raised before awaiting the outcome of the judicial review.”

*The article was amended at 11.55am on February 2. The copy previously read the development would take shape off Ixworth Road.

For more Bury St Edmunds news, click here.