Planning Obligation - A Guide to Section 106 and Developer Contributions

Comment

Representation ID: 360

Received: 12/01/2010

Respondent: Essex Police

Community Safety
Safety and security is a fundamental requirement of sustainable communities, it covers a wide range of activity designed to reduce the likelihood of crime, disorder, anti social behaviour, road casualties and fires which impact on people's quality of life. Importantly it also involves reducing the fear of crime, to promote people's sense of well-being, and reducing the harm caused by drug and alcohol misuse and behaviour damaging to the environment.

Comment

Representation ID: 361

Received: 12/01/2010

Respondent: Essex Police

Why Community Safety from a policing perspective is so important
. Safe communities are a pre-requisite to achieving sustainable communities, by encouraging community cohesion and stability, resident well being and overall vibrancy. While a degree of criminal and anti-social behaviour can be designed out of new development, design measures alone will not address community safety fully. Neighbourhood policing is a national initiative aiming to put communities - their needs, their issues and their priorities at the heart of local policing. This is achieved through active collaboration between police, partners and the public to solve local crime and disorder problems, improve the quality of life for residents across the neighbourhood and increase feelings of security. To provide this form of policing effectively and to achieve one of the Government's central objectives for the spatial planning system, a physical presence within existing and new neighbourhoods is necessary, together with new or expanded support facilities elsewhere to help facilitate the delivery of crime-free environments.
. Crime and disorder has a tangible impact on economic growth, social exclusion and quality of life. With the creation of new neighbourhoods and expanded communities the pressure on existing policing infrastructure and resources will increase, necessarily compromising the ability of the service to deliver safe and crime-free environments as required by PPS1, and to deliver an effective Police service as required by the Police Act 1996.
. Without a tailored range of community safety measures to address these pressures:
. Crime trends will rise
. Police response times will reduce
. Fear of crime will increase
. Community cohesion and well being will suffer
. Expectations will not be met
. Negative perceptions are formed
. New inhabitants and businesses may choose not to move to an area; existing residents and businesses may move away.

The task is therefore to ensure that with grow there is clear recognition of the important role the police will play in helping to deliver sustainable communities.

Community expansion must be supported by proactive development control policies that help to design out opportunities for crime and critically there must be recognition that expanding communities precipitate a direct need for additional policing infrastructure necessary to deliver a police presence within new communities.

The planning system and the development industry have a central role to play in this regard; without engagement the ability of the police to deliver against statutory and spatial planning objectives will be severely compromised.

Comment

Representation ID: 362

Received: 12/01/2010

Respondent: Essex Police

The Form Police Community Safety Infrastructure Takes
The provision of new and expanded police buildings is the most significant and capital intensive requirement arising from an expanding population. The typical hierarchy of provision is as follows:
. Tier 1 - Neighbourhood police office
. Tier 2 - Sector Station (small town)
. Tier 3 - LPA HQ Station
. Tier 5 - Force HQ
. Support (e.g. training, storage)
. Specialist (e.g. Roads Policing)
. Independent public Access/Enquiry Point (e.g. part of a library)

Essex police are committed to putting as many officer's and PCSO's on the front line as possible. While the most visible form of Police infrastructure at a local level is the neighbourhood police office, there are other support and associated functions that have greater strategic influence that will be affected by planning related growth, and which will require expanded or new facilities to mitigate impacts. Such facilities may be located either elsewhere within the Local Planning Authority/Local Police Area or in some cases elsewhere within the wider Force area in line with our strategic plans for policing the contributory proposals.

Comment

Representation ID: 363

Received: 12/01/2010

Respondent: Essex Police

New Developments
The Police Authority will seek formula based contributions from development schemes in accordance with the thresholds which will be presented to the Planning Committee shortly. The approach has been adopted to ensure there is transparency and consistency in the approach to the calculation of contributions, with the objective of increasing accountability, speed and certainty attaching to the process. The approach follows that advocated in the DCLG Planning Obligations Practice Guidance (July 2006), tested for soundness by Timothy Jones Barrister, LLB (Hons), FCIArb, FRGS, FRSA of No. 5 Fountain Court Chambers, Birmingham, found to be sound, and adopted by various Planning Authorities nationally.

The calculation of contributions follows a formula based approach which applies a cost per new dwelling and unit of business floor space to all development. The nature of planning for new policing infrastructure is such that it is not appropriate to apply a threshold to developments above which a contribution will be required. The methodology proposes that any increase in population within a policing area will have an impact on the ability of the Police Force to deliver an efficient and effective policing service; accordingly it is appropriate to require a proportionate contribution from each new unit of accommodation that has an impact on delivery of the service.

Planned growth will necessitate additional manpower and supporting infrastructure comprising, for example, land & property to maintain an acceptable police staff: floor space ratio, and likewise, sufficient custody space (cells), Neighbourhood Policing Officers and important support functions, located to meet strategic policing needs across the District.

Pooled contributions would be used to fund a range of projects directly arising from the need for additional physical and operational capacity required to deliver the police service to an expanding community. For example:
1. Adaptation and extension of Police Stations; additional accommodation costs arising from replacement facilities serving both town and District.
2. New facilities associated with major development (urban extensions) or major growth points where it is strategically efficient to locate within a new community.
3. Extending, adapting or replacing existing or currently planned Neighbourhood Police facilities where growth affects the police rating of neighbourhoods and resultant resourcing.
4. Increasing the capacity of existing or new accommodation for related County and Force wide functions across the Force area, where needs are generated across several local authority areas and contributions are pooled strategically. (Central functions)
5. Capital requirements of Officer & PCSO / Support Staff recruitment & training, vehicular provision, IT equipment, uniforms, furniture & lockers.

As a consequence it will not be the case that each individual development will give rise to a direct need for a specific item of infrastructure. However, all development will contribute towards a cumulative impact on delivery of the policing service and as such it will be appropriate to pool contributions, in accordance with the advice contained at paragraphs B21-24 of Circular 05/2005 and paragraphs 2.18-2.20 of the DCLG Planning Obligations: Practice Guidance.

Pooled contributions would be used by the Police Authority to provide additional policing infrastructure required to maintain an efficient and effective policing service within the local policing area. This could take a variety of forms ranging from purpose-built new facilities, to extension and adaptation of existing buildings. The particular form of infrastructure provision will differ according to circumstances, but the consistent approach will be to ensure that the standard of service as measured according to ratio of officers and support staff to incidents is maintained across each local policing area. The methodology identifies an acceptable baseline standard for operation of the police service to be maintained in the face of development and population increase.

It is not appropriate therefore to identify specific capital projects within this SPD which would be funded by developer contributions. However the approach ensures that planning obligations would be used only for the funding of capital projects and associated pump-priming expenditure within the Force's operational area, to maintain an efficient and effective service.

In accordance with guidance within Circular 05/05 the Police Authority would be required to ring fence contributions and report to the Local Planning Authority on how monies generated through planning obligations had been used. Any monies not expended within a timescale to be specified within the legal agreement would be returned. A clear audit trail would be established to ensure transparency and clear accountability.

Contributions have been assessed on the basis of providing for additional policing infrastructure needs generated by population growth arising from planned residential and business/commercial developments. Contributions would be used by the Police Authority specifically towards the provision of new and enhanced police infrastructure to support the demands generated by development.

In addition an assessment will be made on a case by case basis for the need for possible enhanced contributions towards other infrastructure such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera's and Airwave communication masts, or where we consider that a particular development will generate a greater demand on policing resources (see note 2 below) / fall outside of the former approach.

Contributions sought may be in-kind and/or financial and may be on-site or off-site depending on the scale of the development and the circumstances of the case. This is supported by Circular 05/05 Annex B Para's. B9 and B15 on Planning Obligations.

Comment

Representation ID: 364

Received: 12/01/2010

Respondent: Essex Police

Methodology for Calculating Contributions
The methodology for the calculating Standard Charges for policing infrastructure is set out below. This, along with a working 'formulaic' spreadsheet will be presented to the Council in due course, along with our other recommendations for the inclusion of community safety measures in the LDF policy documents. We shall also be approaching the LSP re: the SCS & LAA.

The police service is predominantly a population-based service and new infrastructure requirements are generated, mainly although not exclusively, by expanding populations associated with new development.

STEP 1
Derive an incident ratio per head of population, based on existing population, and projecting this into the future to determine likely number of future incidents arising from an expanding population.

STEP 2
Establish an acceptable ratio of incidents to police officers and support staff, based on delivery of an efficient and effective police service. This allows the need for additional staff numbers to be calculated, based on an expanding population. This stage provides a proportional link between population increase and the need for increased policing infrastructure.

STEP 3
Derive the additional infrastructure requirement from the additional staff quotient numbers required to provide effective policing. Accommodation/infrastructure needs are based upon a standard floor space and set up cost per officer and support staff. It is then possible to calculate costings per additional staff member.

STEP 4
To divide the projected infrastructure costs by the planned number of new dwellings to give a standard charge per dwelling. This figure requires adjustment to determine a new resident occupancy rate per new dwelling (on the basis that additional infrastructure requirements are population not dwelling driven) and a proportionate charge per new dwelling (see STEP 6).

STEP 5
To apportion the total cost per dwelling between residential and employment development based on policing statistics relating to the proportion of incidents relating to business uses against all incidents.

STEP 6
To adjust the standard charge per dwelling to reflect occupancy rates of new residents: This is achieved by dividing the projected number of new residents by the forecast number of dwellings to produce a new resident occupancy rate per dwelling. The cost per dwelling is calculated by applying the occupancy factor to the new resident cost. This figure is adjusted to provide a residential charge and a business charge, according to the ratio of residential to business incidents. The residential figure per dwelling is then divided by the average occupancy rate for dwellings in the District to give a proportionate cost per 'new occupant' which can then be applied to occupancy rates for various sizes of dwelling. The business figure is a new employee figure; a cost per unit of floor space can be calculated using floor space to worker ratios in conjunction with the incidents of crime ratio.

We have every intention of approaching the Council Planning Committee formally with a rationale & justification incorporating the legal & policy groundings; along with empirical data used to inform & support the methodology; and have various inputs for the LDF policy documents, whether they be emerging or adopted - for later inclusion in monitoring & revisions.

We therefore appreciate that this presentation may appear somewhat crude, however it is has been produced in the interest of meeting your S.106 SPD deadline by the 21st December 2009, and in light of recent conversations with the Planning Authority indicating that generic information would be appreciated at this time, as a detailed review will be carried out in 2010 - giving the parties time to consider the initiative more comprehensively. At this stage therefore, we are happy only to achieve the inclusion of Essex Police within definitions of 'public infrastructure provider', and recognition of our capital requirements to be mitigated by s.106 contributions, and for contributions to be sought on a case by case basis - until the tariff system can be adopted.

We request that due to financial circumstances, and in light of the importance of providing for community safety, that the Planning Authority inform us of major planning applications and we will request that you pursue contributions appropriately until such a time as the full initiative is operative.

Additionally we are in the process of assessing the impact of the Southend Airport application and will have requirements for Special Branch facilities and meeting the security implications of accommodating commercial flights. Please also note that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service will be making s.106 requests on a similar basis to fund essential capital infrastructure investments to maintain the standard of service in response to planned growth.