The parish council is a statutory consultee for all planning applications in Grundisburgh and Culpho. In effect that means that Suffolk Coastal District Council sends the details of all applications to the parish council and invites the council to make comments. Although the parish council is a statutory consultee anyone can object to, or support, applications. It must also be remembered that planning permissions are granted, or refused, by Suffolk Coastal District Council not Parish Councils.

Planning can get people very agitated and the council has a responsibility to represent the whole community when it makes comments.

The parish council has agreed the following policy for dealing with applications:

Planning Sub Committee

• Domestic extensions
• Change of use
• Work on trees covered by Tree Preservation Orders
• Infill - one property (unless the committee considers the application contentious - then it would be discussed by the full Parish Council)

Parish Council

• Infill of more than one property
• Applications that affects the road layout
• Change of use that affects commercial traffic
• Any industrial application
• Any commercial application

Village Meeting

• Any large scale application
• Any application that the Parish Council Chairman, Planning Sub Committee Chairman and/or the Parish Clerk considers of sufficient interest to the village.
• Any application that the majority of the Parish Council consider of interest to the wider community

The planning committee will continue....

• the present practice of not entering into discussions with applicants other than advising then to consult the Planning Authority
• to look at each application on its merits ensuring that it complies with the Suffolk Coastal District Council's Local Plan.
• to ensure that personalities/individuals do not have any influence on the Parish Council's final submission

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK (LDF) - NEW HOMES FOR GRUNDISBURGH ?
The LDF is a new type of plan which will replace the Suffolk Coastal Local Plan.  Part of this is to locate where new homes will be built in the District between 2008 and 2025.  Government policy is that 7,710 must be built but over half of these can already be accounted for in terms of land that already has planning permission or by the potential redevelopment of existing land within towns and villages.

Of this 1,000 new homes need to be found to the east of Ipswich and Suffolk Coastal has identified land to the east of the A12 at Martlesham and Martlesham Heath.   Elsewhere homes are planned for Felixstowe.

New development in villages will be largely influenced by the nature of each development and its position in a 'hierarchy'.   Grundisburgh is one of 24 villages in the top category 'Key Service Centres' which are centres which provide an extensive range of services and could be allocated housing.

Owners of 11 sites in and around Grundisburgh have asked for their land to be considered for housing.    Details, including maps, can be downloaded click here.  More information can be obtained from the District Council's web site and comments can be made using the Council's online consultation system.

The consultation period ends on the 20th February, 2009.

Click here to find out more about the planning process from the District Council's excellent web site.

Click here to visit the meetings section of this site and view the planning section of council meeting minutes and find out how the parish council deals with individual applications