Meeting with Stafford Borough Council Staffordshire CC
Back to listEnquiry
- Meeting with
- Stafford Borough Council Staffordshire CC
- Date of meeting
- 8 February 2011
- Enquiry type
- Meeting
Query about the local authorities role in influencing any s174 obligations and issues over enforcability
Advice given
The need for any s.174 development consent obligations should be discussed between the Local Authority and the applicant at the pre-application stage. Any financial contributions to Local Authorities should be made through development consent obligations. The 2008 Planning Act amends the 1990 TCPA so that development consent obligations (in effect s.106 obligations) can be entered into in connection with an application for an order granting development consent (s.174 of the Act). Whether it is appropriate for a Local Authority to seek s.174 obligations in relation to a particular proposed development would be one of the considerations which the Local Authority would need to consider in making their consultation response under s.42 of the Act and in drawing up their Local lmpact Report under s.60. The s.174 obligations do not form part of the draft order but are important as they will affect the overall impact of a proposed development on a local area. An agreement setting out the development consent obligations would need to be completed before the end of the examination process in order to be taken into account by the Examining Authority. As a minimum the Heads of Terms of such an agreement would need to have been agreed prior to submission of the application and for these to be submitted as part of the application documents. The Local Planning Authority remains the party who will enforce such obligations and would potentially be the beneficiary of financial contributions lawfully offered and sufficiently related to the development. See also IPC Guidance Note 2, para 25 (http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IPC-app-docs-guidance-note-2.pdf) and IPC Guidance Note 1, para 39 and (http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IPC-pre-app-guidance-note-1.pdf).