Local Plan - Preferred Options Consultation Document (Reg18)
10 Delivering Infrastructure
10.1This chapter explains how the policies and proposals within this Local Plan will be implemented, how the Council will monitor their effectiveness in bringing positive changes to the District, how the Council may use its enforcement powers to deal with unauthorised development and how the Council may choose to review the Local Plan to respond to changes in the economy and deal with longer-term development requirements.
Implementation
10.2This Local Plan will form the ‘Development Plan’ for the District against which all applications for new development will be judged. The Council will use the Local Plan in determining planning applications alongside the National Planning Policy Framework and will take into account any other material considerations.
10.3The implementation of the policies and proposals detailed within this Local Plan will be achieved in a variety of ways. As the Local Planning Authority, Tendring District Council will play a key role. However, the Council will also work with a number of bodies to ensure the implementation of this plan in an integrated and efficient way.
10.4The National Planning Policy Framework emphasises that plans must be deliverable. Local Planning Authorities need to demonstrate, within reason, that infrastructure is provided to support the delivery of the development planned. The infrastructure planning process seeks to:
- identify infrastructure needs and costs (including where possible phasing of development, funding sources and responsibilities for delivery);
- improve lines of communication between key delivery agencies and the Local Planning Authority, including identifying opportunities for integrated and more efficient service delivery and better use of assets;
- provide evidence for the setting of a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL);
- be a ‘live’ document that will be used as a tool for helping to deliver infrastructure; and
- set out a process for policy monitoring and review.
10.5In order to ensure that new development delivers sustainable communities, the facilities and service needs must be planned for and monitored. A document called the ‘Tendring - Infrastructure Delivery Plan’ sits alongside this Local Plan. It reviews Tendring’s infrastructure needs for the plan period to 2042. Monitoring of the Local Plan is carried out (at least) annually, through the ‘Tendring District – Authority Monitoring Report’.
10.6The following organisations will be involved in the implementation of this Local Plan:
Table 10.1 Implementation
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Organisation |
Involvement in the Implementation of this Local Plan |
|---|---|
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Tendring District Council Braintree, Chelmsford, Colchester, Essex and Tendring Councils |
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Essex County Council (ECC) |
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Public utilities including: British Gas, electricity providers, British Telecommunications plc and Anglian Water |
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Health authorities including the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and any future health bodies |
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Environment Agency |
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National Highways |
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Network Rail |
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Conservation Organisations including Historic England, Natural England and others |
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Town and Parish Councils |
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The Private Sector |
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10.7The Council appreciates that the delivery of new homes and jobs needs to be supported by necessary infrastructure, including a wide range of transport options, utilities, and community facilities. Throughout the consultation of the review of this Local Plan, this issue continues to be of particular concern to our residents and businesses. The Council has commissioned an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP), to inform the Local Plan, based on other evidence work; studies prepared for the Garden Communities; relevant, topic based national and local studies; and discussions with infrastructure providers. The IDP will sit alongside this Plan and provide specifics on the main items of infrastructure required for larger sites, when they are likely to be provided and who will pay for them. Additionally, the policies within Chapter 9 of this Plan highlight essential pieces of site-specific infrastructure as relevant for certain sites.
10.8The broad categories of necessary infrastructure covered in the IDP will include:
- Water and drainage - water supply, wastewater, flood risk management and resilience, and water quality.
- Energy - electricity, gas and renewable energy.
- Communications - broadband coverage and provision.
- Leisure and green infrastructure - sport, open space and community facilities.
- Education - early years and childcare, primary, secondary, further education, and higher education.
- Health - hospitals, health centres, GP surgeries, dentists, public health and preventative health care.
- Transport - highways, cycle and pedestrian facilities, rail, bus, park and ride, travel management and car parking.
10.9Infrastructure and community facilities are mainly provided by partner agencies and service providers, such as water and energy provision by the utility companies; highways and social services by Essex County Council; education by a range of public and private sector providers; healthcare services and facilities by the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and National Health Service England Midlands and East (NHSE) England. The IDP identifies the different investment and development time scales for these providers allowing us to work with them to help deliver a co-ordinated approach to new infrastructure delivery.
10.10Telecommunications and digital infrastructure technologies are evolving rapidly, and proposals will need to enable sites to access high quality digital infrastructure including fibre and wireless services (5G and Long Term Evolution i.e. successor technologies) which are accessible from a range of providers.
10.11Developers will be expected to contribute towards meeting appropriate infrastructure costs, having regard to overall consideration of viability. This will include contributions to both on-site costs and strategic off-site infrastructure costs. Contributions will be secured under S106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended) and/or secured through a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) as appropriate. CIL will complement and not duplicate planning obligations. A CIL charging schedule linked to this Plan would stipulate a charge, per square metre of gross internal floorspace, for relevant classes of development. A proportion of CIL funds would be passed to Parish/Town councils.
10.12In the event that essential infrastructure cannot be appropriately delivered to support new development despite best efforts to secure it, this policy will be used to restrict development from being commenced or, in certain cases, from being permitted, in the absence of proven infrastructure capacity. When infrastructure cannot be provided within, or is not appropriate to be located on, the development site itself, developers will be expected to make a contribution to the cost to provide what is necessary to support new development.
10.13Policy DI1 below sets out generic infrastructure requirements for new development within the District.
Strategic Policy DI1 Comment
INFRASTRUCTURE DELIVERY AND IMPACT MITIGATION
All new development should be supported by, and have good access to, all necessary infrastructure. Permission will only be granted if it can be demonstrated that there is sufficient appropriate infrastructure capacity to support the development or that such capacity will be delivered by the proposal. It must further be demonstrated that such capacity, as is required, will prove sustainable over time both in physical and financial terms. Where a development proposal requires additional infrastructure capacity to be deemed acceptable, mitigation measures must be agreed with the Local Planning Authority and the appropriate infrastructure provider. Such measures may include (not exclusively):
- financial contributions towards new or expanded facilities and the maintenance thereof;
- on-site construction of new provision;
- off-site capacity improvement works; and/or
- the provision of land.
Developers will be expected to contribute towards the delivery of relevant infrastructure. They will either make direct provision or will contribute towards the provision of local and strategic infrastructure required by the development either alone or cumulatively with other developments. Developers and landowners must work positively with the Local Planning Authority, neighbouring authorities and other infrastructure providers throughout the planning process to ensure that the cumulative impact of development is considered and then mitigated, at the appropriate time, in line with published policies and guidance. Exceptions to this policy will only be considered whereby:
- it is proven that the benefit of the development proceeding, without full mitigation, outweighs the collective harm;
- a fully transparent, open book viability assessment has proven that full mitigation cannot be afforded, allowing only for the minimum appropriate level of developer return and landowner receipt necessary for the development to go ahead, having regard to Planning Practice Guidance and noting that this will be lower for any affordable portion of the development,
- full and thorough investigation has been undertaken to find innovative solutions to issues and all possible steps have been taken to minimise the residual level of unmitigated impacts; and
- obligations are entered into by the developer that provide for appropriate additional mitigation in the event that viability improves prior to completion of the development.
The Council may consider introducing a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and may implement such for areas and/or development types where a viable charging schedule would best mitigate the impacts of growth. Section 106 will remain the appropriate mechanism for securing land and works along with financial contributions where a sum for the necessary infrastructure is not secured via CIL. For the purposes of this policy the widest reasonable definition of infrastructure and infrastructure providers will be applied. Exemplar types of infrastructure are provided in the glossary appended to this plan.
This Policy contributes towards achieving Objective 4 and 5 of this Local Plan.
Design Briefs
10.14Throughout this Local Plan there have been several references to the District Council’s intentions to prepare design and development briefs or masterplans for particular sites allocated in this plan, often in partnership with the landowner/developer. These design and development briefs provide guidance to ensure developments meet the requirements of policies in the Local Plan and more detailed design and development requirements. These documents are very important components of the implementation process to ensure the correct kind of development occurs at key strategic allocations.
10.15During the life of this Local Plan additional design and development briefs may be required to aid the implementation of the policies and proposals within this plan, along with the preparation of Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD) as and when required. These will all be prepared in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (along with any subsequent replacements or amendments) and will be subject to the necessary procedures prior for their adoption to be used alongside this Local Plan.
