Carvel Project Management, based in Withersfield, has been served a breach of condition notice by West Suffolk Council’s planning enforcement.
It relates to former agricultural land in the Breckland Special Protected Area (SPA), a legal designation designed to support protected species including stone curlews.
Carvel was given temporary permission in 2019 to use land off of the B1112/ A1065 at Wangford for a compound with temporary buildings and supporting infrastructure.
That permission included a condition that it submit a plan for clearing the site and restoring it to its previous condition as agricultural land by 10th June 2023.
But no plan for decommissioning has been submitted, the site is still in use, and the only application to vary the condition was sought on 20th June 2023, 10 days after planning permission had already lapsed.
The council has been in contact with Carvel to remind it of the need to clear the site and restore it to agricultural land but to no avail.
Now West Suffolk Council has served a breach of condition notice on Carvel Project Management.
Under that notice, the contractor is required to stop working on the site by 31st August this year. As it is a sensitive site, the decommissioning and restoration work is required to take place between 1st October 2024 and 30th April 2025 so as to fit outside the stone curlew nesting season. The restoration work must be completed by 30th April 2025.
There is no right of appeal under the breach of condition notice.
Cllr Jim Thorndyke, cabinet member for planning at West Suffolk Council, said: “The permission given was temporary while the F-35A construction programme took place. RAF Lakenheath has confirmed that programme is now complete. But the site is still in use a year after planning permission expired. This land is part of the current Breckland SPA, and quite simply enough is enough which is why this notice has now been served.”
Cllr Victor Lukaniuk, ward member for Brandon Town West, which includes the area of land, supports the action. He said: “People have been complaining to me asking how it is that it has been turned into a storage for plant and HGVs when it is a stone curlew nesting area. It’s not appropriate. It’s a rare Breckland scene, the permission was temporary. It’s expired and it’s time for it to be put right.”
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