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Advice on Major Developments
If you are submitting a planning application for the erection of a house(s), flat(s) or the conversion of a building to a house(s) or flat(s) within those parts of the district south of the M4, you are advised to read the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area webpage.
What is major development?
The Council is using the definition of 10 or more dwellings and 1000 square metres of floor space (commercial/business proposals).
Submitting a Major Development planning application?
The application should consist of the required plans (6 copies); signed, dated and fully completed application forms (part 1 and 2); and the required fee. If the proposal is subject to an EIA additional copies should be provided for the necessary consultations with various agencies, you will need to contact the Case Officer to establish how many are required. If a site is heavily constrained it can be useful to contact the Case Officer first to ask if further copies are needed to carry out the full consultation.
The Council will expect all major applications to be accompanied by a full tree survey to British Standard (see Advice Note for further information), a Design Statement, a Site Survey/Analysis, a Planning Statement explaining how the proposal accords with the Development Plan and any other material considerations together with an accessibility assessment. If the site is located within the Green Belt or the Countryside detailed volume calculations of any existing and proposed buildings need to be submitted with the application. Failure to provide this documentation may result in the application being deemed invalid, which will delay its registration. The Council does not accept handed drawings and requires all elevations to be shown on scaled plans. The block plan should accurately show the relationship of the proposal to immediately surrounding buildings. Coloured plans in the form of supporting material is welcomed for Committee presentation purposes.
Section 106 – service, amenity and infrastructure contributions
Where pre-application advice confirms that a legal agreement will be required the following information should be supplied with your planning application:
- your proposed heads of terms or a draft legal agreement;
- copies of title deeds;
- an undertaking to pay the Council's legal costs in connection with the preparation of a Section 106 agreement;
- the contact address and name of the solicitor representing you or your client.
The Council has developed a series of standard agreements and the Case Officer will supply these to you.
When an application is to be approved there will be a focus on completing the whole process within the required 13 week timescale. It will be expected that the legal agreement will be completed at the latest 2 days prior to the application expiry date.
If pre-application discussion has included information on the Section 106 contributions arising from the proposal it would be helpful to the Case Officer to have an indication of whether the required contributions are acceptable to the applicant. The Council will proceed with drafting a Section 106 agreement on the understanding that the applicant pays any costs arising should the application eventually be refused. Given the target to determine major applications within 13 weeks, early contact and preparation of agreements is beneficial. The Council expects Section 106 agreements to be completed promptly following the Committee resolution, with all contributions index linked and payments normally made prior to first occupation.
Major Applications - Planning Obligation Requirements
All major applications are subject to Services Amenity and Infrastructure contributions. These are secured by way of a planning obligation under Section 106 of the Act. Permission will only be granted following on from the completion of the required obligation. Where pre application / advice from the planning officer confirms that a S106 planning obligation will be required please supply the following information with your planning application:
1) Heads of terms to be agreed with the planning officer
2) A draft S106 planing obligation – please check with the Council’s planning solicitor before commencing work on this document. The Council has now developed a series of standard agreements and the case officer will supply these to you.
3) Copies of ‘’title deeds’’ for the application site.
4) An undertaking to pay the Councils legal costs in connection with the preparation of a S106 planning obligation.
5) In the event that solicitors represent you or your clients, the relevant contact address and the name of the person dealing with the matter.
Timescales
Where a S106 planning obligation is required the decision date of the planning application is the date upon which the obligation is signed and the permission is then issued not the date upon which the Committee authorisation is given. In view of the current Government performance requirements a robust approach needs to be taken to ensure the timely determination of such applications. The target timescales will therefore be set as follows.
Where the application is to be approved there will be a focus on completing the whole process within the required 13-week timescale. Where this is the case it will be expected that the planning obligation will be completed at the latest 2 days prior to the application expiry date. In the event that an application is more than 13 weeks old at the date of the Committee resolution a period of 2 months will be allowed for the completion of the necessary agreement. In the absence of the necessary agreement being completed within that 2 month period the application is likely to be refused on the basis of lack of infrastructure contributions and/or affordable housing.
Where the application is to be refused on the basis of its planning merits, it will be targeted to a Committee meeting within the 13-week period.
July, 2006.
