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Colchester Borough Council is providing support for residents, businesses and communities throughout winter.
Colchester Borough Council is providing support for residents, businesses and communities throughout winter.
In order for planning permission to be issued for major developments (defined as 10 dwellings or more, 1,000 square metres floorspace, sites over 1Ha etc) usually a section 106 agreement must be completed.
S106 agreements, also known as "Planning Obligations", are legal agreements between a Council and a developer or other parties, or can be offered unilaterally by a developer, that ensure extra works related to a development are undertaken.
S106 agreements will be considered when a development will have negative impacts on the local area that can't be mitigated by means of conditions attached to the planning permission.
For example, a new residential development can place additional pressure on the social, physical and economic infrastructure which already exists in the surrounding area.
Planning Obligations aim to balance this extra pressure with improvements to the surrounding area to ensure that a development makes a positive contribution to the local area and community.
All applications are assessed on a case by case basis and not all developments will require obligations.
Read more on the Planning Portal
Existing S106 Agreements can be found on our planning website.
The Government gives guidance on S106 agreements, which states the obligations must be:
Read more on the Government's site
Areas which could attract potential obligations include:
Where significant impacts are expected, we and the developer will negotiate a S106 Agreement, advising the necessary items that the developer must do or provide to balance the impacts.
We consider all major applications (i.e. those which involve the provision of 10 or more units or 1,000 sq m or more of commercial space) as they're most likely to have a level of negative impact that will require mitigation.
Our Development Team meets every fortnight to determine potential planning obligations for individual applications in partnership with the Planning Officer.
Vacant building credit was introduced following the ministerial statement released on the 28th November 2014 and provides incentives to developers to bring forward development on brownfield sites which contain vacant buildings that are capable of beneficial use.
Read more on the Government's site
The Government have set out the latest planning practice guidance on their planning obligations website.
Read more on the Government's site
The Practice Guidance builds upon the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which specifically addresses planning obligations in paragraphs 203-205.
View the National Planning Policy Framework
There is also useful information regarding the legal tests for seeking planning obligations, more information about Section 106, highway matters and the latest planning news.
We recommend you submit a pre-application for complex major applications so that the S106 requirements ("Heads of Terms") can be identified and agreed as early as possible.
We charge a Legal Fee for the preparation, checking and production of S106 Agreements and Undertakings.
These fees are included in the S106 Agreement or Undertaking and become payable in the period after approving planning permission and before the formal completion of the Agreement or Undertaking.
We recommend you submit a pre-application for complex major applications so that key principles can be identified and agreed as early as possible.
If you know you need planning permission, but don't want specific advice.