Suffolk County Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council and West Suffolk Council send legal letter to Government over approval of Sunnica solar farm plans affecting villages near Newmarket

Councils have written a legal letter to the Government which could pave the way for a judicial review over its decision to approve a massive solar farm around villages near Newmarket.

Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, granted development consent for the Sunnica scheme last month, which would see 2,792 acres of solar panels and battery storage installed across parts of West Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

Residents in Chippenham, Isleham, Freckenham, Fordham, West Row, Worlington, Burwell, Barton Mills, Red Lodge and Snailwell would all be affected by the solar farm proposal, which has been met with fierce opposition.

Suffolk County Council, alongside Cambridgeshire County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council and West Suffolk Council, has sent a pre-action protocol letter to Mr Miliband about his decision.

The county council said it was the first step in potential judicial review proceedings against the Sunnica solar farm project, in a bid to secure appropriate funding for work the council says it will have to do as a result of the scheme.

The authority said it believes that, in his haste to approve the application in just a matter of days, the Secretary of State ignored the council’s funding arguments.

It said this means Sunnica only has to pay a minimal amount to cover costs which will be forced on the council as a result of the project going ahead.

Cllr Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s deputy cabinet member for nationally significant infrastructure projects, said Mr Miliband was only in post for a matter of days before approving a number of energy projects and it would have been impossible for him to fully review the Sunnica application, and to see how flawed it was.

“One of the crucial things he has ignored is the insufficient amount that Sunnica has proposed to reimburse local councils for dealing with conditions attached to the application,” said Cllr Rout.

“This is an embarrassing, clumsy and entirely avoidable error by the Secretary of State. This is why we are taking legal action.”

When permission is granted for a nationally significant infrastructure project to proceed, it is on the condition that the developer follows the requirements laid out in the development consent order.

These are monitored by the relevant local authority, and signed off when the requirements of various stages of the project are met.

The scheme can then move onto its next stage of construction.

This creates additional work for the council to do and so funding for the authority must be provided by the developer in the form of application fees.

The farm would stretch around 15 miles from end to end and affects 16 parishes and towns along its route.

It will be built across four sites, one near Mildenhall and West Row, another near Freckenham and Worlington and on two other sites in East Cambridgeshire close to Newmarket.

The Say No to Sunnica Community Action Group said the farm would be built on some of the UK’s best, high-yielding irrigated farmland and has questioned the design and location.

The scheme had been rejected by parish councils, district councils and by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk County Councils.

Cllr Jim Thorndyke, cabinet member for planning at West Suffolk Council, said: “We have sought legal advice and have been advised that there are no grounds for a challenge to quash the Sunnica decision.

“Any decision by the council on whether to join a legal challenge to seek a judicial review of the Sunnica decision, has to take into account the advice we have received alongside the fact that as a local authority we are managing public funds, not just for the area impacted by Sunnica, but West Suffolk as a whole and any loss could have an impact on the public services that we provide to our communities.

“The council is exploring a technical challenge on the single issue of the level of planning fees that Sunnica must pay. That challenge will not change the outcome of the Sunnica decision.

“We of course wish the Say No To Sunnica Action Group every success should it decide to pursue a challenge of its own.”

Nick Timothy, MP for West Suffolk, said: "I welcome this action by Suffolk County Council.

“The Sunnica project is completely inappropriate and should not have been approved by Ed Miliband. Indeed before the election Claire Coutinho, the last Secretary of State, had decided to block it."

"Mr Miliband made clear in his answer to my question in Parliament that he did not properly consider all the evidence in his rush to approve the application. There are likely to be other legal challenges, and we must hope that the courts see there has been a clear failure of process."

Sunnica has said the land used would be decontaminated and returned to its original, largely agricultural use once the scheme was finished.

It said the farm would power 172,000 homes and create 1,500 jobs during construction, with 27 full-time jobs to run it.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has been approached for comment.