Issue - meetings

To consider an annual report setting out new agreements signed, income received and monies spent for the previous financial year including an update on non-financial obligations and information on those S106 agreements due to expire within two years.

The committee considered the report in the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes).

Mrs Dower presented the report. Mr Davies and Ms Munns (WSCC) were available to answer questions. Mr S Oakley (district council member) was permitted by the Chairman to ask a number of questions.

Mrs Dower reminded members that this was the full S106 annual report and that the committee also received a report in November each year on those S106 agreements coming up to their target spend date.  Reports were also produced by ward in March and September each year for members to access on the Council’s intranet.

The number of S106 agreements produced over the last year had been scaled back as the new CIL regime was introduced. New this year was the CIL monitoring report, which would be included with the authority’s monitoring report published in December each year.

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

·         Land rear of Premier Business Park – this is in relation to a recreation disturbance payment paid at the outset under a unilateral undertaking (which is the route most developers choose). If the application is refused then the money is returned to the developer.

·         Request to show greater transparency in what has been achieved from S106 and CIL payments. Members were reminded that the role of this committee was to review governance and ensure processes were adequate to ensure that this procedure ran smoothly. The ward reports gave more detail on the outcomes achieved.

·         Members were concerned that their parish councils appeared not to have knowledge of the S106/CIL processes. It was suggested that this should be picked up through the biannual parish council meetings arranged by the authority. Forums are held in the local areas – a request for an agenda item will be passed to relevant officers running these forums.

·         There was concern regarding communication by the South Downs National Park (SDNP) to its parishes and the district councils regarding S106/CIL arrangements. Members were advised that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had made a recommendation to the SDNP at its last meeting regarding the development of a Communications Protocol. Officers undertook to add a sentence under the background section of the covering report regarding the difference between the South Downs National Park and the Council’s administration of S106/CIL agreements.

·         It was suggested that any concerns were passed to Mr M Dunn, the authority’s representative on the SDNPA.

·         The non-financial obligations report was considered too lengthy. It would be useful if specific points could be highlighted in the body of the covering report e.g. where developers were unwilling to deliver their obligations.

·         Concern that once planning permission was granted officers were deciding how the money was spent in the S106 agreement without consulting with the local community. An example was the Shopwyke Lakes scheme where road junctions had not been included in the S106 agreement. 

·         Concern by members regarding the lack of transparency of decision making regarding how and why S106/CIL  ...  view the full minutes text for item 135