Unfortunately, Cassandra Clements from East Suffolk Services was unable to attend this evening. However, her attendance has been confirmed for the next area forum taking place on 13th June. Should your council have any pressing matters that you would have raised this evening, please click on this link to complete a form providing those details which we can pass onto East Suffolk Services. We will ask that they respond to you direct.
We welcomed Chloe Robinson-Smith who presented information on the County's vehicle charging infrastructure project. A recording of her presentation is available below for reference.
Attendance stats
Information exchange
Suffolk County Council devolution consultation: media exposure of the launch of this has been very quiet, several councils have seen no press or media coverage to encourage participation. There is nothing prominent on the SCC website. SALC will feed this back to SCC. SALC published an article in the latest NEWS e-bulletin. Click on this link to view the dedicated SCC webpage.
Andrew Lewis, SALC Board Chairperson, attended the first Sizewell C Oversight Partnership meeting on 11th March. This group will meet twice a year. A formal presentation has been promised and will be shared with councils once available. Sally Longmate, SALC CEO, will be attending the Sizewell C Forum on 9th April.
Lionlink was discussed. A number of councils offered to share their environmental impact assessment response to others as a template on which to base their own response. Deadline for the response is the 4th April.
Concerns of the effectiveness of Suffolk Highways was raised. Comments were made that there does not appear to have been much improvement since Milestone have taken over the contract.
SALC update
SALC updated delegates on current issues coming out of the member survey which closes at the end of March - highways had come top. Here is a link to the survey for those parishes who are yet to take part. SALC will be working with highways and looking at the most effective way to help with communication and information.
We will be attending the next East Suffolk Planning forum on 3rd July at Melton.
SALC has engaged with Birketts Solicitors to deliver four planning training sessions in June. Further details of what the sessions will cover and how to book will be available in due course.
We will be attending the East Suffolk Community Partnership Annual Forum on 22nd March at Trinity Park. Sally Longmate, SALC CEO, and Debbie Jackson, SALC Project Officer, will be hosting an exhibitor stand at the event.
We have recently circulated updates around LionLink for those parishes and towns dealing with the environmental impact assessment pre-consultation exercise. We have updated our FAQ page on NSIPs on our website (use this link to view that page) and in addition the latest newsletter with all the latest updates (although these change quickly, we know) is available too using this link to our NSIPs main page which also hosts guidance published last autumn. We have also drafted an options paper for a SALC resource to assist parishes in the process and seeking funding from a variety of routes including central government, developers/applicants, local planning authorities. We are also updating all Suffolk MPs on our activities in this area in view of the impact it will have on communities and as a consequence on town and parish councils. We have been campaigning on these matters for the last two years thanks to issues raised by councils in this forum.
Speakers for future meetings
Please note East Suffolk Services will be joining the next meeting - 13th June. Future speaker ideas include: Cllr. Caroline Topping Leader of East Suffolk Council and East Suffolk Services, Cllr Yule in relation to planning, Chris Bally, East Suffolk Council CEO and Milestone Infrastructure. NB : SALC have already had a panel session with Milestone at their conference in November - link to the recording here. Future events being planned with highways will be cross-county.