Issue - meetings

The County Council’s Developer Contribution Guide sets out the approach that the Council takes in seeking planning obligations, specifically Section 106 contributions, to mitigate the impact of new development upon County Council infrastructure and services. This form of planning obligation is an agreement made under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 between a local authority and a developer. It is attached to a planning permission to make acceptable development which would otherwise be unacceptable in planning terms. A S106 agreement must be directly relevant to the proposed development.

Given the reductions in capital funding and the anticipated increase in scale of development within Surrey in the coming years, it is important that the County Council has a policy document clearly setting out its requirements.

The guide does not introduce any policy change but brings together existing information produced by a range of services into one document. The guide has been produced to improve transparency and confirm to both developers and district and borough planning authorities what contributions are currently sought in respect of new development.

Once adopted, the guide will then be published on the County Council’s website and promoted to developers and Local Planning Authorities.  The guide will be used to support contribution requests at external meetings, tribunals and inquiries.

It was recommended that:

1.    The Developer Contribution Guide be adopted.

2.    That the authority be delegated to the planning Group Manager to agree any further updates to the Guide to capture any subsequent Government legislative changes, updated technical information or additional categories of obligation requests.