Suffolk County Council has initiated legal proceedings in a bid to secure ‘appropriate funding’ after the new Government approved a large-scale solar farm.
The authority sent a pre-action protocol letter to energy secretary Ed Miliband in the first step towards a potential judicial review.
The secretary of state gave development consent for the 2,400 acre site on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border soon after arriving in post.
Cambridgeshire County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, and West Suffolk Council have also agreed to send legal letters.
The local authorities say they are concerned that developer Sunnica has proposed an ‘insufficient’ amount to reimburse them for monitoring the conditions attached to the application.
Suffolk’s deputy cabinet member for nationally significant infrastructure projects, Richard Rout, accused the secretary of state of approving the application ‘with reckless abandon’.
Councillor Rout said: ‘In doing so, he has shown scant regard for the communities affected, and for the local authorities who must pick up considerable amounts of additional work as a result of the project going ahead.’
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it would be inappropriate to comment on a live planning case.
Granting permission, Mr Miliband had said was prepared to ‘make tough decisions with ambition and urgency’ and that ‘public benefits associated with the proposed development outweigh the harm identified’.
