Submission of Maidstone Borough Local Plan to the Secretary of State for Independent Examination

The Maidstone Borough Local Plan was submitted to the Secretary of State on 20th May 2016.

Public consultation on the draft Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule

Strategic Planning, Sustainability and Transportation Committee resolved to publish the Draft Charging Schedule, Draft Regulation 123 List and Draft Instalments Policy for consultation at the meeting on 12 July and consultation took place between 5 August and 16 September.

Adoption of the Integrated Transport Strategy by Strategic Planning Sustainability & Transport Committee (and Full Council)

Following the request for minor changes to the documents by the Strategic Planning Sustainability and Transportation Committee on 6th July the revised Integrated Transport Strategy and the Walking and Cycling Strategy were adopted by the Strategic Planning Sustainability and Transportation Committee on 13th September. However, as a result of continuing discussions with Kent County Council the latest revised documents were not subsequently reviewed by the JTB on 13 July 2016 as envisaged. Instead a joint report was presented by the KCC Head of Transportation and the MBC Head of Planning and Development which updated Members with respect to the 7 December 2015 resolution. Further to the JTB resolution of 13 July 2016, MBC will continue to work with Kent County Council towards its joint adoption.

Submission of the Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule to the Secretary of State for Independent Examination

Strategic Planning, Sustainability and Transportation Committee’s approval for minor changes to the Draft Regulation 123 List will be sought on 11th October together with their recommendation to Full Council to approve the Draft Charging Schedule and revised Draft Regulation 123 List for submission for examination which is timetabled for December 2016/January 2017.

Set a Pricing Structure

A draft pricing structure for the new Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) has been produced which has been agreed in principle by the Head of Planning and requires verification from the Director. Following this, the fees would require approval in the normal way. This sets a combined pricing structure for pre application discussions, meeting with members, signing of a PPA agreement (which agrees the project management of the application) for a set fee. This consists of £3,500 for small scale major (50 units plus or 2,500 sqm commercial floor space) and £5,000 for large scale major (100 units plus or 5,000 sqm commercial floor space). The customer is then entitled to a number of pre application meetings, a member briefing and a completed PPA. This fee excludes the planning fee and fees negotiated through the PPA for specialist staff involvement i.e viability reviews/ES reviews etc.

Fees have also been raised by 5% across the service to cover the standard pre application fees and a new category introduced which covers member reviews (£509).

Set a template S106 agreement with standard heads of terms

A specimen draft S106 has been produced and is available for customers to review from the MBC website. This contains MBC' standard clauses and will enable developers to have a "head up" on the clauses we use. All Developer forum members were notified of its availability. A protocol is also being produced between Development Management (DM) and MKLS to cover the timely delivery of information necessary to deliver the S106. This will commit both DM and MKLS to meeting set time frames for progression of S106 agreement e.g production of first draft of S106 within 15 working days of instruction to MKLS. This document is currently in draft form and is expected to be agreed shortly.

Setting a standardised Planning Performance Agreement (PPA) for future developments

A draft PPA template has been produced and feedback from officers is currently being incorporated into the template. Once all relevant feedback on the template has been received the PPA will be piloted. The fees associated with the PPA have been included on the Fees and Charges list put forward for 17/18. This provides a combined pricing structure for pre application discussions, meeting with members, signing of a PPA agreement (which agrees the project management of the application). This set fee consists of £3,500 for small scale major (50 units plus or 2,500 sqm commercial floor space) and £5,000 for large scale major (100 units plus or 5,000 sqm commercial floor space). This fee excludes the planning fee and fees negotiated through the PPA for specialist staff involvement.

Migration of all historic S106 data into a new system

All historic S106 data has been successfully migrated into the test Exacom system. A few minor changes are being made by IT regarding the nightly update to the Exacom system from Uniform. Once this issue has been resolved the updates will be automated into the live system.