6 Procedures

6.1 Providing for open spaces, sport and recreation through new housing involves four stages:

  1. An open space, sport and recreation strategy and action plan has been prepared for Calderdale and will need to be complemented by regularly updated information on facility and management needs.
  2. Locally justified assessments of facility and management costs and systems have been prepared to calculate costs for provision and management.
  3. The use of the development team approach at Council level to conduct negotiations.
  4. Through this SPD to create accountable and transparent procedures for negotiating planning contributions incorporating effective monitoring and review.

6.2 This process has a firm basis in PPG17. Key principles within guidance include:

  • The use of planning conditions in the first instance to create open space on-site within housing developments, or off-site contributions;
  • Payment of the full costs of essential sport and recreation (community) facilities by the developer;
  • In the cases of smaller sites, provision for contributions towards off- site provision;
  • Arrangements for pooled funds and in some cases combined typologies, made up of contributions from a number of developments to be used for the provision of facilities for refurbishment or new facilities for which there is an identified shortfall in the locality.

6.3 When a development falls within the requirements of this procedure, Planning Services will refer relevant applications to the Recreation, Sport and Streetscene Section in Community Services. They will determine the relevant open space requirements by type generated by the application site. An appraisal will be undertaken to assess the future demand to be placed upon these facilities, derived from local trends and the effects of the development proposals.

6.4 In accordance with the government’s “Draft Guidance for Local Planning Authorities on the Validation of Planning Applications” (August 2007), the Council requires that a “planning obligations statement” is submitted prior to the validation of any application that includes 10 or more dwellings. Where an applicant believes that it would not be economically viable to provide a contribution to public open space in accordance with the required standards, a residual type valuation must be submitted prior to validation of the application to demonstrate how this is the case. In addition the applicant will be expected to meet the Council’s reasonable costs for having this valuation assessed by independent valuers.In order to ensure a fair and consistent approach, the Council will produce further detailed guidance on the format and content of these residual valuations, and the procedures for ensuring that they are properly assessed. It is likely that this guidance will be incorporated into the Council’s list of Locally Required Information, which will be published pursuant to the changes to the General Permitted Development Order that will be introduced in April 2008.

6.5 Planning Obligations: Cost recovery

  1. The Council will impose a fixed charge to cover the reasonable legal costs incurred by the Local Planning Authority (LPA) in drafting a legal agreement. This charge will be payable on completion of the agreement.
  2. A further one-off charge in respect of monitoring and compliance checks will also be payable at the completion of the agreement. For large-scale developments, whilst phased payments may be agreed by negotiation with the LPA for the outcomes and payments due under the terms of the planning obligation, the charge for monitoring of the agreement will be expected on completion of the agreement.
  3. In circumstances where it is claimed that the required obligations impact on the viability of a scheme, then the applicant will be expected to cover the reasonable costs incurred by the LPA in seeking an independent valuation and viability assessment.
  4. The charges for planning obligations are published by the LPA and will be reviewed annually at the end of each financial year based on the Retail Prices Index. The charges to be paid will be those relevant at the date of signing the legal agreement.