Issue - meetings

To present a number of issues and options relating to the harmonisation of the procedural and administrative arrangements for planning obligations negotiated under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended)

The Board considered a report which outlined a number of issues and options relating to the harmonisation of the procedural and administrative arrangements for planning obligations negotiated under section 106 of the Town and County Planning Act 1990 (as amended). 

In working towards harmonising the procedural and administrative agreements for planning obligations and their incorporation into a Planning Obligations Protocol, a number for key issues that needed to be resolved had been identified.  These were:

• whether commuted sums should be indexed to maintain the value of the commuted sum
• whether an interest charge should be applied for the late payment of commuted sums
• whether standard templates for legal agreements and unilateral undertakings should be prepared and published on the Council’s website
• whether a monitoring fee should be applied to enable effective compliance monitoring, reporting and publication of information relating to planning obligations and the benefits secured

Whilst there was some element of consistency between the former constituent Council’s in their practices relating to indexing and last payment interest, the only Council which published standard templates and applied a monitoring charge had been Macclesfield Borough Council.  

Members considered the options outlined in the report before coming to a decision for each of the issues outlined above.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       Legal agreements and Unilateral Undertakings will contain provision for indexing of commuted sums using appropriate indices

(2)       Legal agreements and Unilateral Undertakings will contain provision for the application of late payment interest at an appropriate percentage above the Bank of England’s Bank Rate or the base rate of the Co-operative Bank (the Council’s bank)

(3)            standard templates for Legal agreements and Unilateral Undertakings will be prepared and published on the Council’s website

(4)       the introduction of a monitoring charge is supported in principle, although a detailed report setting out how such a charge could be formulated and introduced should be prepared and submitted to the Board for consideration.