Agenda item

The Corporate Governance and Audit Committee is requested to consider the agenda report and its five appendices (there is also a background paper which will be published for online viewing only as an agenda supplement), which is the annual report setting out new arrangements signed, income received and monies spent for the previous financial year including an update on non-financial obligations and information on those section 106 agreements due to expire within two years.

The Committee considered the full Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) annual monitoring report published in December each year circulated with the agenda.

Mrs Dower and Mr Davies were in attendance for this item.

Mrs Dower introduced this report and advised that officers from West Sussex Council and the South Downs National Park Authority who had been invited to attend the meeting had sent their apologies.  Any questions raised by the Committee directed to these officers would be forwarded on for comment.

The Committee would receive a S106 report in October specifically on those agreements approaching or past their target spend date. This is to   ensure that funds received were spent in accordance with the agreement and time limits for spending, so that they did not have to be handed back to the developer. There is no expenditure deadline on Cil receipts.

During the discussion comments were made by members and answers provided by officers as follows:

·         Members received a report, sent electronically, each March and September reflecting progress of S106 agreements in their ward.

·         Officers were asked if they had any concerns that any of the agreements were not making progress or might not meet their target date.  Mr Davies confirmed that the spending officers were actively monitoring the monies to ensure they were spent before expiry. That most of the information in this report is as at 31 March 2018 further updates from the spending officers would be included in the September reports to members.

·         Mr Davies explained that  appendix 1 the unspent contributions coming up to their expiry date was a quarterly report considered by the Senior Management Team who engaged with divisional managers to ensure any issues were followed up with the spending officers.  In addition there is an e quarterly officer liaison group meeting where progress is discussed, to focus on those projects nearing their target date.

·         An explanation was given concerning the amount of CIL contribution received in relation to expenditure, to date. The CIL spending plan is a five-year rolling programme introduced on 1 February 2016.  The apparent spending delay is to allow sufficient funds to accrue to pay  for more expensive  infrastructure projects in the spending plan With regard to the A27 contributions, a new Transport assessment was currently being undertaken to support the Local Plan review and officers would be engaging with Highways England in due course.. 

·         The CIL charging schedule would be reviewed as part of the Council’s Local Plan Review.  The South Downs National Park, has its own CIL in place, and their charges are higher because land and property values in the Chichester part of the National Park are higher than the rest of the district. With regard to Wakeford’s  Field and concern that the community provision may be lost, Mr Davies undertook to speak to Mrs Golding, Principal Solicitor, and Mrs Archer, Enforcement Manager, to get a progress update, as they were liaising with the administrator following the financial failure of the developer.

·         Approved schemes were listed in the capital programme.  It was agreed that a link should be provided in the report to provide a cross reference to the CIL Spending Plan to assist the reader.

·         A parish council could change their projects at any time but they must advise the Council to ensure the new proposals meet the CIL spend regulations for parishes.

·         Mr Oakley was invited to address the Committee and was provided with answers concerning the vulnerability of projects due to the possibility of having to hand back Section 106 monies, an update on the CIL trajectory in the IBP and renegotiations on existing Section 106 agreements.  With regard to the former Shiphams Factory site Section 106 contributions and the decision made by Cabinet concerning the Priory Park Masterplan, Mr Davies undertook to ask the spending officer for an update on the total contributions of £40,291.61 remaining.

RESOLVED

1)    That the income and expenditure between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 in respect of S106 contributions from CIL be noted;

2)    That the information on S106 agreements within two years of the expenditure target date as set out in appendix 1 be noted;

3)    That the details of non-fictional S106 obligations set out in appendix 2 be noted; and

4)    That the monitoring information required by the CIL regulations as set out in appendix 6 be noted.