Council Meeting 9 December 2021
Update on Babergh & Mid Suffolk’s Joint Local Plan progress to adoption.

Babergh and Mid Suffolk began preparing their Joint Local Plan in 2016. They
submitted the Regulation 19 Draft for Examination in Public in 2020. The
Examination by the Planning Inspectorate first started in May/June 2021 only to be
rescheduled until later in the year because of IT problems at the venue. The
Examination recommenced in September 2021 and was held virtually with a
programme running through to mid-November. East Bergholt was represented at the
virtual sessions by Councillor Miller and Councillor Roberts.
An Examination in Public provides the opportunity to submit written representations
and also to “attend in person” to present feedback on a Local Plan as part of the
statutory process towards adoption. The Inspector takes comments, and asks
questions of the Local Authority with the overall aim to ensure the Plan is robust in its
formulation and sound in the policies which it is putting forward; so it will stand up to
scrutiny if challenged.
In the case of the B&MS JLP, the Inspector took the unusual step to halt
proceedings during the Examination stage in Mid-October 2021. Babergh we’re
attempting to explain and justify the Plan’s approach to defining the Settlement
Hierarchy, the Spatial Strategy, the rationale for the Site Allocations and their
relationship to the Sustainability Appraisal. The Inspector found these aspects of the
Plan to be fundamentally unsound. As a result Babergh & Mid Suffolk we’re directed
to revisit the “Plan” and address all the concerns that had been raised.
As a result B&MS have provided the Inspector with a proposed “work programme”.
This sets out the content and timing of the additional work that Babergh believes is
required.
To review the Spatial Strategy, Site Allocations and the associated Sustainability
Appraisal primarily, Babergh currently estimate an additional 12 months of elapsed
time will be required. The Inspectors will be holding an exploratory meeting with the
Council’s team on Thursday 16th December 2021 at 10am to discuss the content of
their “work programme” This will be live steamed on the Council’s You Tube channel
for those who wish to observe.
If the Council’s “work programme” is approved then all of 2022 would most likely be
taken up with the technical work required. Following this, the JLP would require
redrafting and following District Council approval would have to be subjected to
another round of consultation prior to being resubmitted to the Inspectorate in
advance of a new or reopened Examination in Public.
So this is likely to mean that Babergh’s Core Strategy will remain in place as our
relevant policy document for another two years, albeit becoming more out of date
and so Increasingly subject to challenge. It also means that the revised JLP on which
we will be consulted, sometime in 2023 could be a very different document than the
current draft, including possible new site allocations and boundary designations, but

that at the moment is pure conjecture. So for the next two years it is likely that we
and of course Babergh will still not have an adopted Joint Local Plan from which to
judge planning applications nor an up to date strategic context for our emerging
Neighbourhood Plan. Not quite a policy vacuum but a situation that creates
uncertainty, increased potential for ad hoc decisions and possible unexpected
outcomes. So clarity and transparency are likely to be in short measure until the
situation is resolved satisfactorily.
Councillor Nigel Roberts
Vice-Chairman of the Council
25 November 2021