COMPLETED AND OUTSTANDING SECTION 106 OBLIGATIONS - QUARTERLY
REPORT
To advise Members of the current situation in respect of Section 106 obligations in the year ending 30 September 2005
This report updates and extends the information given to Members on 15 June 2005.
Section 106 agreements are derived from powers in the Planning Acts and by ODPM Circular 05/2005 ‘Planning Obligations’. They can be entered into by way of either a multilateral agreement signed by all parties including the LPA or as a ‘unilateral undertaking’ offered by the applicant to the LPA; although a material consideration there is no duty on an LPA to accept a unilateral undertaking if it does not cover adequately and robustly those matters which the LPA would otherwise include in multilateral agreement.
Since mid 1999, the date from when the current schedule runs, Isle of Wight Council has entered into 40 Section 106 obligations which include a financial contribution, raising in total around £890,000 for highways, education, open space, housing, arts and other areas of Council spend. A further £710,000 has been agreed but until development commences or another trigger point is activated this has yet to be received. This schedule may understate the full amount recovered if the monies have been received and spent. As well as the financial contributions there may be other restrictive covenants included in some of these agreements.
By category, the financial contributions are as follows:-
|
|
Received to date* |
Possible future receipts* |
|
Highways |
£398,000 |
£173,000 |
|
Housing |
£371,000 |
£350,000 |
|
Education |
£46,000 |
£141,000 |
|
Community |
£27,000 |
Nil |
Public Art
|
£26,000 |
Nil |
|
Play
Areas |
£15,000 |
£14,000 |
|
Parks |
£6,000 |
£45,000 |
|
Countryside |
£4,000 |
Nil |
|
(NOTE: all figures rounded) |
£893,000* |
£709,000* |
Non-financial obligations can cover matters as diverse as occupancy restrictions, non-severance/sub-division of the land, provision and implementation of a travel plan, establishment of a management company, etc. In other words they can prescribe the nature of the development to achieve a planning purpose, mitigate the impact of a development or compensate for loss or damage caused by the development. The exact number of these is uncertain because different schedules of agreements have historically been maintained for different purposes.
Provided the Secretary of State’s policy tests are met anything, within reason, can be included. These tests, which apply to financial contributions and non-financial obligations alike, set out that any obligations must be:-
· necessary from a planning point of view;
· directly related to the proposed development;
· fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the proposed development; and
· reasonable in all other respects.
These are scheduled in the table attached as Annex 1. There are 38 of these. It will be noted that 8 unsigned agreements are as a consequence of the need for the developer to discharge a condition.
Members will note that most of these have been drafted and are currently awaiting signature. In light of members’ recent decision that where these have not been signed within 3 months it is envisaged several applications may either revert to DCSC for reconsideration or be refused under delegated powers.
Currently legal services hold records of 89 s106 obligations that have been entered into since April 2004 and which deal with both financial and non-financial matters. The significance of the April 2004 date is that is when a new monitoring system was implemented in the legal section. There are a further 99 which date from 1999 to April 2004, but these are on a non-compatible IT system. It will also be necessary to interrogate Planning Service’s Acolaid computer database to reconcile planning permissions which have been granted since 1999 and which have been subject to s106 agreements.
What your officers propose to do over the next few weeks is to create a single consolidated schedule covering the last 5 years or so. From such a grandfather list it will be possible to compile subsidiary father and son listings for specific purposes or covering discrete topics.
That Members note the report and endorse the proposals set out in the report.
Individual officer reports (whether delegated or to DCSC) on each application or obligation.