Legislation

Planning obligations under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended), commonly known as s106 agreements, are a mechanism which make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms, that would not otherwise be acceptable. They are focused on site specific mitigation of the impact of development. S106 agreements are often referred to as 'developer contributions' along with highway contributions and the Community Infrastructure Levy.

The Town and Country Planning Regulations 2013

The common uses of planning obligations are to secure affordable housing, and to specify the type and timing of this housing; and to secure financial contributions to provide infrastructure or affordable housing. However these are not the only uses for a s106 obligation.

For more information please click here to be taken to the Local Government Association website pages.

The Woodland View development along Hailsham Road holds an agreement for the contributions to the local community as shown in the table below.

Please note the use of our Red /Amber/Green (RAG) monitoring system which shows stages of each project - Green for completed, Amber for ongoing / being worked on / Red for not yet started.

Please do contact the Clerk if you wish for further detail.

In July 2020, the Parish Council received the following information and advice:

• Developer S106 contribution received by WDC in May 2020, index linked sums amounted to
• Rights Of Way - £1,183.17
• Footpath Works - £33,276.75

The deadline for returning the contribution to the developer is 10 years from payment, therefore the money needs to be spent by May 2030.

The Rights of Way funding has been drawn down by the East Sussex County Council Rights of Way East department, and in agreement from the Herstmonceux Parish Council, has been used for the Community Routes footpaths improvements.

In terms of the £33k for footpath works, the County Council do not currently have a scheme on our capital programme. Any such scheme is likely to cost significantly more than £33k. With this in mind, there are perhaps two options for spending the money;

1. Wait for further S.106/CIL monies to become available to spend in this locality before including the footpath improvement scheme in a future capital programme.
2. The Parish Council consider applying to drawdown the money from WDC for implementing a footpath improvement scheme, provided it is within the terms of the 106 agreement. As WDC hold the money, they would need to be content with this proposal and ESCC would also need to agree the scheme. This would be a suitable solution if the Parish Council are holding some other monies that could help bridge any funding gap (i.e. CIL receipts that they have already received), such an approach could facilitate the spending of this contribution sooner rather than later.

If the Parish wishes to pursue the second option then we would be pleased to discuss your ideas and provide support for taking forward any such scheme.

Hope this helps

Following public consultation, new play equipment for the children's play areas was agreed:

Revised scheme to include play items:
• 1 x Horse Rocker and 1 x Fox Rocker
• Play house with porch
• 4-Seater Seesaw
• Jive Bridge
• Fencing works included.

In addition to the S106 agreement, this project sits under Policy 6 of the Herstmonceux Parish Neighbourhood Plan, Sports Leisure and Recreation Facilities in Herstmonceux Parish.