S106 - Village Halls and Community Centres - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
S106 - Village Halls and Community Centres
John Martin, modified 7 Years ago.
S106 - Village Halls and Community Centres
New Member Posts: 14 Join Date: 12/11/16 Recent PostsAny reason why an existing S106 agreement shouldn't be revisited (land up for sale but no commencement of building activities yet) at the request of the community, and with the agreement of the landowners, to:
1 Reduce the number of affordable housing units
and in return
2 Provide a substantial contribution towards a village hall to replace the existing one
The community in question already has more affordable housing than it requires, as a result of another development, and argues that it has a far greater need for a village hall large enough to cope with the additional developments that have taken place. The landowners are quite content to go along with this as it would, broadly speaking, be cost-neutral, and enhance their reputation within the community.
Andrew Chalmers, modified 7 Years ago.
RE: Village Halls and Community Centres
Advocate Posts: 169 Join Date: 20/10/11 Recent PostsWorth remembering at the outset that S106 money can only be taken to mitigate impacts of development and NPPF and CIL Regulations are clear that:
204. Planning obligations should only be sought where they meet all of the following tests:
- necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms
- directly related to the development; and
- fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development."
So just because a developer is happy and community keen does not necessarily mean it is "legal" in planning. This is obviously to avoid any suggestion that planning permissions can be bought or sold i.e. by a developer offering money for almost anything.
Is there any policy in the Local Plan that would require contributions to a village hall or any means of working out how much this development should contribute?
Thinking aloud if a new planning application was to come forward now, I assume your argument is that there is no longer any need for affordable housing, in which case there would be no money available to re-direct. You should ideally demonstrate the development would result in need for an expanded/new community centre. The reasonably related criterion is important in terms of how much the development should contribute. It could be unreasonable to expect a development for example to fund the entire village hall as its users will be from existing housing as well as other new developments.
You need to speak to the planners to see what S106 contributions they currently seek and whether they have a formula to calculate legitimate requirements.
John Martin, modified 7 Years ago.
RE: Village Halls and Community Centres
New Member Posts: 14 Join Date: 12/11/16 Recent PostsThanks, Andrew - much appreciated.
The tests are very relevant - but difficult to interpret in practice. The situation here is that the planning authority takes the view that S106 cannot be used to obtain contributions towards village halls - period. The Local Plan contains very little on the subject, and certainly nothing concrete, or any means of calculating contributions. They accept that villages need village halls, but they do not accept that S106 can be used in any way to fund them.
My view is that if a village hall is already at capacity, which this one is, further developments amounting to 10-25% additional housing/population inevitably make those developments:
- necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms and
- directly related to the development
There's no question of asking for a S106 contribution to cover a complete rebuild (c£600k) but a contribution of, say, £100k (in place of some surplus affordable housing) for a development amounting to 10% of the present size of the village doesn't seem unreasonable (fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development), given that any development takes the hall beyoond its legal capacity for large events.
The landowner, who has strong local connections, is happy to do this (kudos for the family) but the LA absolutely refuses to countenance it because, it says, S106 cannot fund village halls. I think this is nonsense, and there are plenty of other LAs up and down the country doing just that.
The s106 can be revisited see NPPF s204 and elsewere but putting its funds to the village hall extension is very unlikely to be a neccesity arising from the developments unacceptable impacts.
Its a big stretch to say a village hall extension is neccesary to help mitigate an unaceptable impact, roads yes, schools yes, drainage etc all potentially necessary, other things are desirable or might follow due to greater demands such as a bigger hall
Would a LPA refuse an applicaiton due to no access to a village hall and win any reasonable planning appeal or the new process for s106 appeals, NO.
You need to hang that hat on something other than reviewing s106, sustainability policies for example, CIL if applicable or just a plain advantage of the application.