Relevant Planning Policies

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This is the most relevant policy within East Suffolk Council Suffolk Coastal Local Plan 23 September 2020. The whole document can be found here: https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/assets/Planning/Planning-Policy-and-Local-Plans/Suffolk-Coastal-Local-Plan/Adopted-Suffolk-Coastal-Local-Plan/East-Suffolk-Council-Suffolk-Coastal-Local-Plan.pdf

Policy SCLP9.1: Low Carbon & Renewable Energy 

The Council will support Neighbourhood Plans in identifying suitable areas for renewable and low carbon energy development, particularly where they relate to developments that are community-led. 

In identifying suitable areas, consideration should be given to the criteria listed below:  

a) They can evidence a sustainable and, ideally, local source of fuel;  

b) They can facilitate the necessary infrastructure and power connections required for functional purposes; and 

c) They are complementary to the existing environment without causing any significant adverse impacts, particularly relating to the residential amenity, landscape and visual impact, the natural beauty and special qualities of the AONB, transport, flora and fauna, noise and air quality, unless those impacts can be appropriately mitigated. 

The Council will support low carbon and renewable energy developments, with the exception of wind energy schemes, where they are within an area identified as suitable for renewable or low carbon energy or satisfy the above criteria. Wind energy schemes must be located in an area identified as suitable for renewable or low carbon energy in a Neighbourhood Plan. When the technology is no longer operational there is a requirement to decommission, remove the facility and complete a restoration of the site to its original condition

Please follow this link https://www.gov.uk/guidance/renewable-and-low-carbon-energy for the full document.

This is a key extract:

Policies based on clear criteria can be useful when they are expressed positively (ie that proposals will be accepted where the impact is or can be made acceptable). In thinking about criteria the National Policy Statements published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change provide a useful starting point. These set out the impacts particular technologies can give rise to and how these should be addressed.

In shaping local criteria for inclusion in Local Plans and considering planning applications in the meantime, it is important to be clear that:

• the need for renewable or low carbon energy does not automatically override environmental protections;
• cumulative impacts require particular attention, especially the increasing impact that wind turbines and large scale solar farms can have on landscape and local amenity as the number of turbines and solar arrays in an area increases;
• local topography is an important factor in assessing whether wind turbines and large scale solar farms could have a damaging effect on landscape and recognise that the impact can be as great in predominately flat landscapes as in hilly or mountainous areas;
• great care should be taken to ensure heritage assets are conserved in a manner appropriate to their significance, including the impact of proposals on views important to their setting;
• proposals in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and in areas close to them where there could be an adverse impact on the protected area, will need careful consideration;
• protecting local amenity is an important consideration which should be given proper weight in planning decisions.

This is from the Principal Planning Officer North team

https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/assets/Planning/World-of-Planning/June-2014/Solar-farms-and-wind-turbines.pdf

This is the resonse from East Suffolk Council to the draft