Section 106 Archives - Planning Design Ltd

Glapwell – Home is where the art is

20th September 2023 by Gary Stringer

Planning & Design Practice have gained planning permission for Meadowview Homes to build 64 homes on the site of the former Glapwell Estate and hall. They share the land with Glapwell Nurseries / tea rooms and also the amazing Grade II Listed Gardener’s Bothy which is one of the last remaining elements of the Glapwell Estate. They are designing unique homes and integrating bespoke art and landscaping which will connect the old and new communities of Glapwell to the past.

Once the development is completed, parts of the site will, for the first time, be classed as public open space. For years the site has had no actual use or purpose and the fencing surrounding it was unsightly and dilapidated. Meadowview Homes are restoring the Gardener’s Bothy to conserve it and ensure its long-term future. They are also reintroducing a formal garden setting as part of the development which will contain public art, unique garden features, and a children’s play area for residents to enjoy and to link up the site to surrounding parts of the village.

The public art element will be in three separate areas across the site but all will have a distinct design theme running through them to bring cohesion to the pieces. This will contain a large 3.6m diameter dry stone sculpture. The stone will be laid radiating to the central hole. The inner and outer edges will be contained within a corten steel ring. The faces of the circle will be dished drawing the eye into the centre. In the Bothy Area there will be a sculpture on the lawns on each side of the road with the same design style as above but at a smaller scale. The faces will be flat not dished and again they will be contained within corten steel bands. The sculptures will sit on circles of pitched stone replicating the face of the feature on the horizontal surface.

Meadowview Homes chose an award-winning dry stone waller Andrew Loudon who uses local materials and themes that reflect the community. He is working in collaboration with CB Arts Chris Brammall one of the leading metalworkers in the UK and responsible for the sculpture on the Chesterfield roundabout. The design drawings and landscaping theme have been provided by Janine Crimmins who has won 4 RHS medals. Meadowview Homes are confident that the artwork by these established artists will be an asset to the local community.

Glapwell – a rich heritage

Rich in industrial and cultural history it’s only fitting that Glapwell Gardens will add to that history with its own unique public artwork.

Glapwell Art was part of a planning obligation negotiated between Meadowview Homes and the local council. Known as a Section 106. S106 agreements are legal agreements between Local Authorities and developers; these are linked to planning permissions and can also be known as planning obligations. A Planning obligation will aim to balance the pressure created by the new development with improvements to the surrounding area ensuring that where possible the development would make a positive contribution to the local area and community.

Planning & Design Practice Ltd regularly work with developers to negotiate S106 agreements but this was the first time negotiating an artwork. Our heritage assistant Ruth Gray, who is an artist herself was able to steer the project and formulate a public consultation which has just completed.

Planning & Design Practice are a team of Planners, Architects and Heritage specialists. Based in Derbyshire, we are perfectly located to work nationally for our clients. We offer a comprehensive range of services, specialising in Town Planning, Architecture, Heritage, and Urban Design. For a no obligation consultation to discuss your project or property, please contact us on 01332 347371 or email enquiries@planningdesign.co.uk

Please Note: A Version of this article appeared in the September 2023 issue of Derbyshire Life.

Meeting housing Needs in Wirksworth

3rd December 20193rd December 2019 by Gary Stringer

Planning & Design Practice have secured planning approval in principle for 12 new homes at Millers Green, located on the southern side of Wirksworth. The site which is within the town’s development boundary and outside the conservation area was not an allocated housing site. It consists of land that was previously developed at the front of the site with a green field behind. To the north east is the cricket club and to the south west, the area known as Millers Green.

Wirksworth, like many places has an ageing population. The applicants wanted to build mainly bungalows, with an early proposal was for 10 bungalows but the council wanted a mix of houses and bungalows. We successfully negotiated a mix of seven bungalows and five houses, with the houses on the front of the site where the land is lower, with bungalows on the rising land behind.

The application was in outline with all matters except access. The proposals raised several issues:

Creating development in depth, building on a green field, with an improved access and the potential for future development
Objections from neighbours and the town council
Building houses close to a cricket club
The amount of affordable housing on the site.
Section 106 costs

Local Plan policies allow development within the town boundary and whilst part of the site is Greenfield, this is not a reason for refusal that could bear scrutiny on appeal. The applicant’s wanted development in depth because the existing access track to their home and land is very poor and the new road will improve matters.

Cricket clubs have a unique place in planning policy. They are part of the English character but a cricket ball can be driven well over the boundary and this has the potential to harm people and property. New housing should not prevent a cricket club from operating and a developer must ensure that cricket balls are prevented from doing harm. The solution is fencing and it was agreed following discussions with members of the Cricket club that a 4 m fence would be built along the boundary between the cricket ground and the housing site.

The council requires 30% of all new housing to be affordable but on small sites where the total number of homes exceeds 10 the marginal costs can be very high. Housing up to 10 units requires no affordable housing and no tariff payments, education costs, contributions to doctors etc. Above 10 it does. This creates a cliff edge. Here we negotiated two affordable bungalows in agreement with the council housing officer who needs to see more bungalows built for the town’s elderly and disabled. At the last minute the council came back requiring a further payment towards off site affordable housing, a further£ 25,000 contribution. In response we offered three affordable town houses, to keep the overall impact on land values as low as possible. Faced with something the council did not want, they changed their view and we were able to secure the lower level of affordable housing.

The council resolved to approve the application at committee in October and the Section 106 agreement is in the process of being approved.

It was a good result, but we had to negotiate hard, to try to maintain viability.

Change in Government guidance means S106 school funding is non-negotiable?

19th August 20197th June 2019 by Gary Stringer

On schemes above 10 dwellings developers are required to fund new school places in the school catchment area where schools are at or near capacity.

In Derbyshire a development of 100 homes will typically generate a demand for 20 primary school places, 15 secondary school places and 6 sixth form or technical school places. The costs of each place are £11,500 per primary places, and £17,500 per secondary and sixth form place.

In a further amendment to Planning Practice Guidance the Government has made it plain for the first time that education developments should be considered as infrastructure for the purposes of the Community Infrastructure Levy. This means that government funding for schools is reduced to take account of developer contributions to avoid double funding for new school places.

This change in funding is aimed at reducing the cost to the exchequer and will require Section 106 funds to deliver an increase in school places. Whilst it has been commonly accepted for some time that education funding was not negotiable, this change confirms as much. The consequence for developers is that where they are seeking any reduction in Section 106 costs on marginal schemes such savings will have to come from the levels of affordable housing or the provision of other community benefits rather than from education costs.

If you have any queries about developer contribution matters please do not hesitate to get in touch. Since being founded in 2002 we have worked with developers of all sizes, from small companies working on one property at a time to large house builders and commercial organisations where multi-million pound schemes are the norm.

Biodiversity Net Gain – Impact on Planning Applications

19th August 20198th May 2019 by Gary Stringer

In the Spring Statement the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that the government will use the planning system to mandate a net biodiversity gain from new development. However, the Consultation by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) left open questions about how the scheme will work in practice.

Biodiversity net gain will be measured by Defra’s biodiversity metric. The metric developed by Defra and Natural England allows practitioners to assess a habitat in terms of its value to wildlife, condition and size and thus calculate habitat losses and gains.

Under the NPPF development ‘should’ enhance the environment by minimising impacts on and providing net gains for biodiversity. Defra propose making this mandatory by updating planning guidance. This is likely to come forward in the Environment Bill due to be published before the summer.

The aim will be to avoid harm, then seek to mitigate harm before being allowed to compensate for habitat loss. Lichfield DC currently mandate a 20% gain in net biodiversity and this seems to work as they report average net gains of 60%.

Defra are considering an exemption for small schemes 10 units or 1,000sqm, also to exempt development on Brownfield Land and on commercial industrial land.

Offsetting could involve more Section 106 monies and Ecology reports will add £2,000+ to the upfront costs of a planning application submission.

PDP secure planning consent for 35 new dwellings in South Wingfield

20th August 20193rd April 2019 by Gary Stringer

South Wingfield lies about 2 miles west of Alfreton in Amber Valley. It is a village of over 1500 inhabitants with a good primary school, a doctor’s surgery, shops, and community facilities. The southern end of the village is a conservation area and this part of the village is dominated by South Wingfield Manor an important heritage asset.

Amber Valley is under great pressure to find housing land to meet it’s own housing needs and some of Derby’s housing, as part of an agreement with the City of Derby and South Derbyshire Councils. All parts of the Borough have to take some housing and South Wingfield as a sustainable settlement with a school short of pupils, was identified by Amber Valley as having the capacity to take a small number of additional homes.

The site, at the north end of the village was identified. The land was included in the Draft Local Plan as a housing allocation over 2 years ago. The site was subject to two rounds of public consultation and was discussed at the Local Plan Examination hearings last June. At the hearing there were no objections from the Parish Council and no objections from local residents. The site was not controversial.

When the outline planning application was submitted for 35 homes there was an immediate outcry, 122 letters of objection were submitted to the Borough Council and the Parish Council sought to strongly resist the proposals. There were no objections from highways or other statutory consultees and the planning authority duly recommended approval.

The meeting was highly charged. The atmosphere was hostile as sixty residents with members of the Parish Council sought to browbeat the committee and planning officers. There were 9 speakers against the application that’s 27 minutes of contentious objection. We had 3 minutes to speak in favour.

South Wingfield Parish Council verbally attacked Councillors, in their objections speech, not something that we would ever recommend. There was an objection speech from the Local Councillor (a conservative) but she was not on Planning Committee.

Amber Valley Council are politically finely balanced and hold elections every year. It is common that the lead party supports officer recommendation but the opposition tend to vote with objectors to carry favour before the next election.

At Planning Committee there is a conservative majority of one plus the chairman and his casting vote if the vote is level.

After a rowdy debate, members voted 5/5 and the chairman used his casting vote. A win 6/5.

Solicitors are now drawing up the Section 106 Agreement. Once signed, a detailed application will follow.

This was an uncomfortable meeting, with objectors behaving poorly.

The management and organisation of the meeting could have been better and objectors could have been told more clearly how they should behave. Without effective policing decisions can be made to please the crowd. We were pleased that this did not happen.

PDP achieves consent for 100 houses in Heanor

19th August 20194th September 2018 by Gary Stringer

Planning & Design Practice have successfully gained planning permission for 100 houses at Heanor. The site is in a sustainable location on the edge of Heanor, but outside of the Green Belt. The outline application was granted planning permission on delegated powers, subject to a Section 106 Legal Agreement for developer contributions.

Working closely with Planning Officers at Amber Valley Borough Council, any issues that arose during the consideration process were dealt with swiftly and professionally. This included a Geophysical Survey of the site to assess the potential for hidden archaeological features.

We also commissioned a specialist report from Highways Consultants to show that the existing access route and junction with the main road was suitable for the amount of traffic expected for a development of this size.

An Indicative Masterplan was produced to support the application, following the principles of good urban design, which showed that the number of houses could be laid out satisfactorily on the available land, respect the existing residential properties around the site, and incorporate suitable areas of public open space, along with sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) to deal with rainwater runoff.

The legal agreement requires financial payments to fund the provision of additional primary and secondary education places in the nearest schools, and a payment to the NHS to increase capacity at nearby doctor’s surgeries, as well as a contribution towards the enhancement of playing and sports pitches in Heanor. All of the payments agreed to are directly proportional to the number of houses on the development.

Getting a planning permission for a development of 100 homes under delegated approval is a substantial achievement and one that the company is very proud of. When we submitted the application we expected considerable opposition and there were in fact almost 70 objections, largely in relation to lack of infrastructure – school places, doctor’s surgeries etc., as well as traffic levels – however these issues were addressed by the financial contributions required by the Section 106 Legal Agreement, and a Travel Plan to encourage the use of sustainable methods of transport.

Planning & Design Practice is looking forward to the opportunity to work with any potential developer of the site on a Reserved Matters application, to resolve the finer details of the scheme and see construction start.

The approved scheme will help to address Amber Valley Borough Council’s shortfall in their 5 year supply of suitable housing land. However, the Council are still looking for more housing sites, so if you are a landowner and have land that you think may be suitable, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Glapwell – Home is where the art is

Glapwell – a rich heritage

Meeting housing Needs in Wirksworth

Change in Government guidance means S106 school funding is non-negotiable?

Biodiversity Net Gain – Impact on Planning Applications

PDP secure planning consent for 35 new dwellings in South Wingfield

PDP achieves consent for 100 houses in Heanor

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