Where a development of four or more houses, retail or commercial leisure development either on its own, or in association with existing developments, will place additional demands on facilities, infrastructure or services that would necessitate new facilities or exacerbate deficiencies in existing provision, the Council will require the developer to meet or contribute to the cost of providing or improving such infrastructure, facilities or services. This could include off-site environmental or other enhancements where issues cannot be addressed within the development site. Contributions will relate to the development concerned, including in nature, scale and kind. Where these cannot be secured by planning conditions or other appropriate means, the council will expect developers to complete a Section 75 obligation or other legal agreement. Contributions sought under this policy will be waived or reduced only in exceptional circumstances – for example, where a developer demonstrates that an enabling development or a development would have exceptional development costs, overriding economic, social or other benefits, and where there is no adverse impact on essential services or infrastructure.
A list of specific projects which support placemaking to be funded by developer contributions can be found in Table 6 of the LDP (PDF 18Mb) and the Action Programme.
Note: In addition to any contributions made under Policy INF5, developers will require to meet the costs of providing the service infrastructure necessary for their development
The Council will monitor and review, in discussion with stakeholders, including representatives of the development industry, Supplementary Guidance relating to Developer Contributions (PDF 1.5Mb) on an annual basis
Supplementary Guidance on Developer Contributions (PDF 1.5Mb) supports policy INF5 by providing further detail on:
- which projects that developers will require to make contributions towards
- the costs of projects
- how the developer contributions will be calculated
- how the Council will collect funds