Agenda item

The Committee is requested to note the contents of this report concerning section 106 agreements nearing their expenditure date (as set out in Appendix 1) and to raise any concerns.

Mr Davies presented the report and was joined by Mrs Dower.  Mr Davies explained that the report outlined those contributions which required additional monitoring as they were due to reach their target date within the next two years or were now overdue.  The West Sussex County Council data relating to the Section 106 contributions, not available at the Committee’s meeting on 25 July 2019 due to issues with the migration of the County Council’s data to a new system, was now attached.  He asked members to email him by Friday 1 November 2019 if they had any questions on the County Council data.  He referred to the recently amended Community Infrastructure Levy regulations that required the Council to produce an Infrastructure Funding Statement to be published on a new government website, as well as the introduction of Section 106 monitoring fees as a planning obligation.  As a result of these new regulations there may be changes to the formatting of future reports but the content would be broadly the same.   

During the discussion officers responded to members’ questions as follows:

·      Mr Davies undertook to identify the contributions located in the South Downs National Park (SDNP) in future reports. He pointed out that the Council only monitored the Section 106 agreements for those planning applications where the decisions were taken by the District Council’s Development Management Team and not called in by the SDNP Authority.   He undertook to speak to the SDNP Authority’s own Monitoring officer to ask if details of their contributions could be provided so that a list of all contributions within the SDNP could be provided to the Committee in future.

·      With regard to the contributions received, Mrs Belenger explained that these formed part of the Council’s funds but were not part of the Council’s £14m general fund reserve.

·      Mr Davies responded to a question concerning public art contributions and whether there was flexibility to use the funds for other purposes than those originally stated to ensure funds were used for what was most needed.  He explained that flexibility would depend on the requirements of the legal agreement and some were more restrictive than others.  The Council tried to make agreements as flexible as possible, whilst developers wanted them to be as restrictive as possible.  He updated members on the latest position concerning the public art contribution for Land at Southfields Close and advised that Donnington Parish Council had identified a project to place parish information boards along the canal.  Mrs Dower added that funding for public art was wider than providing just art installations and there were opportunities to be creative with, for example, the use of fencing shaped into something creative.

·      With regard concern raised regarding progress of play provision at the Amphitheatre, Mr Davies undertook to find out the latest position from the Spending Officer and provide a response to the Committee.

·      Mr Davies explained that the Tucan crossing provided as part of the Graylingwell development was not included in the report as it was a non-financial obligation required by the County Council.  The toucan crossing was required to be provided by the completion of 450 dwellings; the developer had currently completed about 444 dwellings.  He understood that the plans had been drawn up but he expected the obligation to be met after the trigger point.

RESOLVED

1.  That the contents of the report concerning Section 106 agreements nearing their expenditure date (as set out in Appendix 1) be noted;

2.  That the changes to the CIL regulations from 1 September 2019 detailed in paragraph 7.3 be noted; and

3.  That the receipt of West Sussex County Council Section 106 data that was unavailable for inclusion in the Section 106 Annual Monitoring Report in July 2019 be noted.