Thurston
Local councils such as Town and Parish Councils do not have a statutory responsibility for services such as planning. The responsibility for the discharge of this function in the majority of cases rests with District and Borough Councils as the Local Authority. For Thurston this will be Mid Suffolk District Council.
How to search for planning applications at Mid Suffolk District Council
To search for an application go to the Mid Suffolk site mid suffolk planning pages and search for Planning Applications, Appeals and Enforcements by keyword, application reference, postcode or by a single line of an address.
The Idox Public Access For Planning website, as shown on the Mid Suffolk District Council website, has been designed to provide an easy-to-use process for members of the public to search for and track applications for planning permission, appeals against refused consent and planning enforcements. This allow those registered to: record a list of searches made; be notified of applications that are being tracking, or are the subject of saved searches, have been modified and keep a record of the applications that they have elected to track.
Please note that Mid Suffolk has stated that due to COVID-19 - all planning applications, correspondence and payments should now be submitted electronically.
Thurston Parish Council and its role in the planning function
Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Schedule 1, paragraph 8, the Parish Council has the power to be notified of planning applications affecting the council's area and to comment upon each application that affects its administrative area.
Changes to rules governing meetings.
Following the High Court Judgment on remote meetings, the legal position is that local councils now need to meet face-to-face, rather than remotely, and be open to attendance in person from the public.
Any face-to-face meeting should be held in line with restrictions and public health advice in place at the time. So, in practical terms, local councils will have no choice but to control the numbers of people physically in the meeting room at any one time in order to comply with the Government’s Covid restrictions.
The Parish Council has carried out a risk assessment of its chosen venue which has been shared with the Compliance Manager at Suffolk Libraries and provided all social distancing measures are in place, this will become the Parish Council's preferred venue for meetings of the Council and its Committees. Working groups and informal meetings will continue by remote means where possible.
In light of the risk assessment, it is advised to set out in the agenda the arrangements for safely meeting (for example social distancing, wearing of face coverings (unless exempt), hand sanitising and other measures) and the number of the public that can be accommodated.
If there is a large influx of the public for a meeting which exceeds the room’s safe capacity as stated on the agenda, then the permitted number of attendees will not be exceeded. The Parish Council will manage this as we would usually any disruptive behaviour or health and safety risks.
If the assessment is that the room cannot hold a safety meeting and no other venue is available or there is no outside space then, then the Parish Council will take appropriate mitigating actions which may include delaying meetings until after 21 June.
Effective 2 September 2020, under its terms of Delegated Authority, the Planning Committee will make a Council Decision regarding responses to the appropriate authorities. It will therefore have the delegated authority to act as per the items below:
To consider and provide a response, to the relevant Planning Authority, to all planning applications when notified under the Local Government Act 1972 Section 20, Schedule 16 or not, regardless of their size, controversial nature or effect on the parish.
In considering matters before it, the committee will have mind to:
The Parish Council reserves the right to have all significant planning applications submitted to Full Council for formal debate and agreement prior to a response being submitted to Mid Suffolk District Council.
The schedule of planning meetings for the year 2022-2023 can be found on the Meeting Dates webpage along with the relevant agenda for each meeting: use this link to be redirected.
For details of planning applications that have been previously considered by Thurston's Planning Committee and the Parish Council please click on the year folders to see the relevant documents:
