Contact: Barbara Beardwell, ext 5157, email: [email protected] Stuart Jarvis, ext 6124, email: [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report seeks authority for the Head of Corporate and Legal Services in consultation with such Chief Officers as he considers appropriate, to settle terms and enter into agreements made pursuant to Section 106 and Section 299A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended).

2 Background

2.1 Planning Authorities are coming under increasing pressure to process planning applications and issue permissions within an eight to 13 week period. Recent experience is that this is taking from anywhere between eight weeks and eight months to finalise Section 106 Agreements where these are required, and so speeding up this part of the process is essential.

2.2 Recent experience with some District Councils indicates that at times the Districts are including planning obligations in favour of the County Council in their own Section 106 Agreements, or including within their agreements an obligation to enter into a Section 106 Agreement with the County Council on terms specified in the District Council's agreements. This is unsatisfactory, as the wording of the obligation may not be what the County Council would wish. One perceived reason for this practice is the delay in seeking authority to enter into the Agreement, which can be some weeks after the resolution of the District Council to grant permission. This problem is more acute where planning obligations are sought in respect of more than one County Council function.

2.3 Since District Councils will already have resolved to grant planning permission subject to a Section 106 Agreement, the decision for the County Council to enter into a Section 106 Agreement in respect of County planning obligations is purely an administrative step. The entering into of an agreement does not commit the County Council to any financial obligation, and is simply the mechanism by which planning gain is received. There is a distinction between the entering into of an agreement, and the decision as to how any contribution is spent, which will remain an Executive function. Most agreements are drafted widely enough to cover flexibility in spending, and any works will be approved as part of the County Council's normal transport capital or other programmes. Where the application is a "County" application these will continue to be determined by Regulatory Committee.

2.4 Instructions as to the terms of the Agreements would continue to be sent from the relevant Departmental officers to the Head of Corporate & Legal Services as they are at present.

2.5 Section 38 Agreements made under the County Council's revised precedent will also be made under Section 106. This will give added protection to the County Council in case of default by a developer, and will ensure, by means of a restriction on the development, that any new roads to be built pursuant to the Agreement will be completed within a specified timescale. Whilst there are delegated powers for Section 38 Agreements, these may not cover Section 106 provisions in the Agreement.

2 Alternatives to decision sought

2.1 Not to grant delegated powers would mean that all Section 106 Agreements where authorities are not in place will need to be referred to Regulatory Committee. In particular on issue of the revised Section 38 Agreement precedent, authority would need to be given by Regulatory Committee in each case, and this would mean that each individual agreement would need to be referred to Regulatory Committee before the Agreement could be completed.

2.2 Not to grant delegated authority would mean it would deprive the County Council of an opportunity to speed up the process in finalising Section 106 Agreements.

Recommendation

That authority be given to the Head of Corporate and Legal Services in consultation with such Chief Officers as he considers appropriate, to settle terms and enter into agreements made pursuant to Section 106 and Section 299A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended).

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report. NB the list excludes: (1) published works and (2) documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act:

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