Planning obligations (S106) support and advice
We can support your community to navigate the often complicated 
processes, procedures and requirements of the planning system.
CFO can work closely with you to develop robust strategies regarding being a party to and negotiating S106 Obligations with developers and the Local Planning Authority. This could involve identifying impacts that the application would create if implemented and agreeing solutions.
Overview of CFO services
| Essential professional planning advice and a co ordinating role to help develop an agreed vision for the facility | Potential uses, internal design – e.g. café or simple kitchen, outdoor spaces – e.g. grounds and parking and deliveries, timeframe for delivery (handover)) as well as enabling consultation within the community and feeding back to the planners. |
| Advice to third parties potentially impacted by development | Such as where a local employer with unusual hours of operating might be disrupted by new residential development on adjoining land or where a local landowner might object to new development impacting use and enjoyment of land. |
| Help with drafting community and third party inputs into a S106 Planning Obligation | To strengthen the management of the impacts arising from the development proposed and to ensure policy compliance. |
Why Planning Obligations Matter
Under the current UK Planning system applicants for planning permission often need to enter into Planning Obligations under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This will need to be agreed before planning permission can be granted. These are legal agreements that ensure relevant matters are carried out to realise the fully agreed scope of a scheme.
Such matters fall outside the normal tests that govern the use of planning conditions such as off site highway works but also concern policy compliance so for instance the provision of a requisite type and amount of affordable housing, within certain periods. The larger and more complex the scheme, the greater the potential impacts, the more difficulty there is in relying on planning conditions and thus the need for Planning Obligations.
Increasingly, communities want to have a voice in these questions. A good example is when a new housing area is laid out this might cumulatively overload existing local services which might be at capacity already. In such a case the developer may be required to design, build, fit out and handover a new surgery, village hall or community facility. Planning Officers have to act impartially and the Planning Obligation is usually negotiated between the Local Authority and the applicant.