Agenda item

Reporting Person: Ernest Amoako

Mr Amoako, Planning Policy Manager, provided an overview of the Community Infrastructure Levy Scheme and informed the Committee that CIL was introduced by the Council on 1 April 2015, the Government encouraged Councils to apply CIL to secure developer contributions to towards the delivery of infrastructure to support the development. Prior to the use of CIL, the main means for securing development contributions was by Section 106 agreement. Section 106 Agreement is only used in limited circumstances in accordance with Government legislation. It was noted that the key advantage of CIL was that it allowed local authorities to pull resources together to implement infrastructure priority schemes in order to benefit their communities the most and identified priorities accordingly without being tied to specific schemes under Section 106.

To ensure accountability and transparency, the Government required Charging Authorities to publish the Regulation 123 List setting out the infrastructure projects that they would use this CIL to deliver.  The requirement to publish Regulation 123 List  had since been abandoned and the Government now requires authorities to publish an “Infrastructure Funding Statement”, which would take effect from 31 December 2020.

A Viability Assessment was a key piece of study that was undertaken to inform the rates that were charged. Woking Borough Council charge CIL for the net floor space of residential and retail uses not commercial. The rates have to set to ensure the viability of development across the Borough. The Council charges 75 pounds per sq.m for residential development at the Town Centre and the Priority Places (Sheerwater and Maybury). Everywhere else is 125 pounds per sq.m. For retail development, it is 75 pound per sq.m everywhere.

Mr Amoako went on to explain that to date Woking Borough Council had received £4,543,832 from CIL funding.

The Committee reviewed the borough map, attached to the agenda, which noted how much money had been earmarked for each ward or neighbourhood areas. It was added that the Council had delegated responsibility to the Joint Committee to oversee the administration of the CIL money. At a meeting of the Joint Committee in March 2019, it was agreed that money could be drawn from the Council to deliver local community projects, and Ward Councillors should play the leading role in identifying projects and applying to the Joint Committee for the money to deliver the projects. In doing so, Ward Councillors should work in partnership with key stakeholders such as neighbourhood forums.  The Joint Committee had suggested to review the scheme t after monitoring its operation for one year.

If Councillors wanted to apply for funding, there were three main pieces of information to meet the criteria:

-       Name of Project

-       Brief description of project and the benefit to the community

-       Evidence of community support for project

The application would then be put together by Officers, and submitted to the Joint Committee for decision.

Following questions raised by Councillors, Mr Amoako confirmed that CIL money could be used on the new or enhancement of Play Areas. It could also be used to improve areas alongside road networks to enhance traffic flow or if that is an integral part of the road infrastructure. Members praised Mr Amoako’s work and assistance with the installation of benches in West Byfleet.  Some frustrations were voiced in the procedure of going through the Joint Committee, especially as recent meetings had been cancelled, however a sub-group had been suggested if this became a concern.

The Chairman thanked Mr Amoako for his update and requested a step by step guide to be produced to allow members to fully utilise the process and what was required.