Disclaimer: These observations are not the ‘official’ minutes of the meeting, these are supplied by Whittlesey Town Council, normally (1) month following the meeting and can be viewed on their website.
4 members of WTC Planning Committee in attendance – 3 sent apologies.
As the only member of the public attending this month’s planning meeting at Whittlesey Town Council – which is pretty usual – no one who may be interested in becoming a Councillor in next May’s local elections – to see ‘how’ local council debate and decide what is put in front of them!
At the public forum – which any member of the public have 15 minutes (in total) to speak to the committee – in this case about ‘Planning’
I asked about Section 106 monies due from Larkfleet Homes on their major building site on Eastrea Road – I had done so 3 times before, and Cllr Mrs Mayor took up the case for me then informed me last month that monies due were still outstanding and overdue, as I asked where it stood now, I saw a nodding head, which I took as this money has now been paid.
Recently several developers have managed to opt out of their original agreements, various reasons, one being ‘unable to afford’ – due to market forces etc.
On the agenda yesterday was F/TY18/0496/PLOBBA – where the now developer ‘Axiom Homes’™ – they have took over the development (Westhaven Nursery Peterboro Road) and want to change/eliminate the previous section S106 contributions.
Their reasoning being that the land will take much greater clearance than they had realised!
They are building many more social/affordable housing and therefor mitigate their requirements for S106 contributions.
So WTC planning committee had to vote to accept the revised application.
This is another example of planning anomaly which we the residents and ratepayer looses out, where this would have been contributions for pre-school & secondary fenland rail contribution, libraries, life long learning county waste and public open spaces.
Surely when there is a legal binding agreement between the planning authority and the developer – this should remain, even when the project is then sold on.
Alas this is not the case.
Under S106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as amended, contributions can be sought from developers towards the costs of providing community and social infrastructure, the need for which has arisen as a result of a new development taking place. This funding is commonly known as ‘Section 106‘.
