You represent a client considering 2 site options, one in South Gloucestershire and one in Bristol. Both have current employment use on them, plus under-developed green spaces with trees that currently form the ‘campus’ of the employment use. The intention is to pursue a large mixed use scheme of 500+ units, plus a local centre including shops, a cinema, and restaurants. There is an existing local retail centre in relatively close proximity to your site. For both LPA areas:
- Identify the list of items that would likely be involved in a S106 agreement
- How much clarity do you feel each LPA gives you moving into the process about their approach?
- How practically easy is it to find/navigate their CIL and S106 approach?
Urban & Environmental Studies 
Items that Would be Involved in an S-106 Agreement:
Someone whos lived for at least 3 years immediately prior to their application or have a permanent job.
This involves public open space, affordable housing, education, highways, town centre improvements, health, recreation disturbance avoidance, and mitigation strategy
How much clarity do you feel each LPA gives you moving into the process about their approach:
‘The format and content of the report will be kept under active review to ensure the data the data presented is as accurate as possible’. This gives us clarity because it shows its always being updated due to South Gloucestershire’s current situation.
How practically easy is it to find/navigate their CIL and S106 approach?
Navigating their approach is easy and informative showing lots of up to date data and figures.
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Team: Norb, Anson
Chosen place: Bristol.
As the development is creating new dwellings, Community Infrastructure Levy will apply. The development is also adding new retail and leisure spaces which will be over 100 meters squares, which CIL is needed for. The current site is used for employment and would need to be demolished; CIL also applies in this context. As we don’t know if this development provides any social housing, it’s hard to say if it can claim CIL relief.
The Bristol City Council has clear bounds and requirements for the CIL, meaning it can be quite easily followed by developers. They have many different documents that can help developers find out if they need to be liable for CIL. Theres’s information about the costs of CIL, what to do if you think you’re liable, working out the size of developments and if the developer can claim CIL relief. There are also links to move forward with the applications such as the Planning Portal, which can provide further information if necessary.
All the documents needed from the Planning Authority are located on one easily accessible webpage. This should make it quite a simple process for the developer. The links all work and you can download all the documents needed. They give clear instructions and there are ways to contact the council if any questions arise.
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Name: Giovanna Cho, Daisy Clark
1. Some green space will be preserved to maintain current employment uses. There is a set minimum affordable housing for development in Bristol, usually 30 to 40 per cent. There may also be a need for a new school in the area due to the large increase in residents (around 500 new dwellings). A local centre including shops, a cinema and restaurants might be included in the agreement, however, there might be a competition between the already enlisted local retail centre next to our site. Due to the increase in residents and the add-on local centre, transport links might need improvement as the old transport links might not be able to handle the sudden increase in traffic.
2. It is pretty clear. The Bristol City Council have included 7 documents on their site which cover most of their approach to sites, including development liability policies, how they would spend their money planning obligations…etc. The documents are pretty easy to read and they are transparent in their approach to different sites.
3. Easy. You can just look it up on the Bristol City Council website and all the related documents are under the ‘Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and planning obligations’ page.
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Pedro and Sam
Looking at the Bristol City Council regulations
1. Section 106 exists to mitigate the impact of development on the local area. Potential negative impacts of this development scheme are the loss of green space, the loss (or change) of employment use on the site, and potential noise pollution. The pressure on local services from the influx of people may be quite impactful, with much increased numbers of people using roads, health centres, schools, for example. The existing local retail centre may also become unfashionable because of the new one in the development, and as a consequence, see a drop in footfall.
For substantial residential development, defined by Bristol City Council as generally in excess of 500 units, it is suggested that provision for on-site open spaces and a school is paid for by section 106 agreements, because of the increase in resident population.
2. It can be difficult to have clarity on whether Section 106 agreements will be sought. In Bristol City Council’s Supplementary Planning Document on Planning Obligations, “Whether an obligation is sought will depend upon the nature, type, location and impact of the proposal”. There is not a defined minimum impact, so is down to discretion, which can be unclear.
The impact can be on anything in the local area. For example, looking at the monies received by Bristol City Council from section 106 agreements in 2021-22 (https://www.bristol.gov.uk/files/documents/5496-2021-22-section-106-report/file), the purposes are as wide ranging as tree planting and public realm, to public transport, highways and education. The Wapping Wharf development paid a contribution of over £1 million for the purpose of “Museum”.
3. The council does set out the steps needed to take before development – https://www.bristol.gov.uk/residents/planning-and-building-regulations/planning-applications/community-infrastructure-levy-cil-and-planning-obligations/community-infrastructure-levy-what-to-do-before-you-start-development
All the documents for CIL and Section 106 agreements are collated on the Council’s website, so everything is in one place, but it can be time consuming to find the correct information.
It is also not entirely clear how much would need to be paid for CIL and section 106 before the process. For this development, and the wide impact that the large development would have, and comparing to similar schemes, it would be likely that the contributions would be in the high hundreds of thousands of pounds.
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Development Appraisal & Planning
Planning Gain Lecture (3) 09-10
S106 agreement – a mechanism which make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms, that would not otherwise be acceptable.
LPA – Local Planning Authority: a local government body or organization responsible for making and enforcing planning decisions within a specific geographic area or jurisdiction.
Workshop
Bristol
1. Identify the list of items that would likely be involved in a s106 agreement?
– A pedestrian crossing for the schools / for the elderly
– Affordable housing
– Open space and recreation: Developers may be required to provide or contribute to open spaces, parks, or recreational facilities for the local community.
– Sustainable Development: Developers may need to adhere to sustainability standards, such as energy efficiency or renewable energy provisions. (Solar panels on roofing) .
– Community facilities: Contributions towards community facilities like community centers, libraries or sports facilities which may be required.
– Phasing and timing: The agreement may outline the schedule for when specific obligations must be met.
2. How much clarity do you feel each LPA gives you moving into process about their approach.
– The clarity of the LPA that Bristol city council gives can still vary based on a range of factors.
– The local policies and plans in Bristol has its own local development plan known as the local plan.
Leah & tracy
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Bristol
1. Contributions – these are monies that the Council uses to deliver measures “on the ground” such as bus stop improvements or
children’s play facilities. These monies are included in the monthly reporting referred to above;
• Compensation – these are monies received to compensate for the loss of income, usually relating to the removal of metered
parking bays. These monies are included in the monthly reporting referred to above.
• Fees – these are monies paid to the Council to enable it to cover its costs when providing a service to the developer that is
required as part of their development. Fees can be for introducing or amending Traffic Regulation Orders, for monitoring Travel
Plans, or for approving drawings relating to highway works and subsequently inspecting the works. These monies are not
included in the monthly monitoring referred to above.
2. In my opinion,
devolved: some of the money is held by Area Committees, who decide how it’s allocated in their local area
non-devolved: some of the money is held by us, to make improvements across the city
3. I think it is kind of difficult because we have to check every link of the website.
Ella
Rafail
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James, Jabs and Ewan
Identify the list of items that would likely be involved in a S106 agreement
In most cases the list of items that would be involved in the S106 agreement would be;
Affordable Housing
Highway Infrastructure Works
Traffic Regulation Orders
Trees
Fire Hydrants
Landscaping Schemes
Areas of Public Realm
Removing Barriers to Employment
Supporting Retail Centres
Other Site Specific Measures
Travel Plans
Although with developments over 500 dwellings it would need to include;
A school and public open spaces funded by the CIL
How much clarity do you feel each LPA gives you moving into the process about their approach? Due to the complex nature of the S106 agreement it is generally unclear as to what exactly would need to be included as every site and every development is different. This is due to the fact of the flexible approach the UK has to planning permission and to treat things case by case.They will need to make a judgment about whether additional publication of the decision is needed a case by case basis. Some factors that need reviewing are the level of public interest in the application and the cost of additional notification.
How practically easy is it to find/navigate their CIL and S106 approach?
It is fairly practical to find and navigate because everything is located in one place on the Bristol City Council website and all the documents that are needed are behind a pdf and is detailed clearly and outlines what their approach is and how they are going to reach that goal and the steps they will take to achieve it. By outlining all the legal implications that go along with their approach and all the financial needs for their CIL and S106 which include their income and expenses for different aspects.
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