Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Strategy and Planning on the Council’s governance arrangements and Funding Decision Protocol (FDP) for allocation of funds from Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

Strategic CIL retained by the Council could be used to fund a wide range of infrastructure such as transport, flood defences, schools, hospitals and other health and social care facilities, but not affordable housing.  The Council must spend CIL on infrastructure needed to support the development of the district which would be informed by the Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP).

Appendix 1 to the report detailed the current governance arrangements and it was noted that up to £250,000 would need to be accrued before spending decisions could be made.  In December 2018, Members were advised that the threshold of £250,000 strategic CIL funds had been reached and the Council’s CIL FDP, Bid Pro-forma, Assessment Criteria, Bid Valuation Checklist as detailed at Appendix 2 was formally approved.  The CIL bidding process was opened in February 2019.  The report detailed the current bidding process and composition of the CIL Officer Group.

Members noted the successful strategic CIL applications funded since the summer of 2019, as detailed at Appendix 3 to the report. 

Local CIL was proportioned to the parish or town councils, either 15% or 25% if a Neighbourhood Plan was “made”.  The Local CIL allocation must be spent within five years otherwise the District Council could ask for the funding to be returned.  It was noted that Local CIL could be used on affordable housing delivery.  Communities without a parish or town council still benefited from the neighbourhood portion.  However, there was not a set process for agreeing how the funding should be spent.  The Council would engage with the local community to agree how to spend the Local CIL. 

Bexhill Local CIL was assessed using the same method.  Three applications were considered in autumn 2019; none of the bids received were awarded Bexhill Local CIL funding.

The Chairman shared a number of proposals on how he felt the Council should allocate the strategic portion of CIL, as follows:

1.    CIL funds be used primarily to provide infrastructure improvements to directly offset the impact of adjacent development and improve the overall infrastructure of the District.

2.    To prioritise improvement or long-term maintenance of existing strategic Rother District Council (RDC) owned public realm assets. To prioritise high speed and ultra-fast broadband in towns, villages and rural areas prioritising areas with current speeds below 20Mbs download. To prioritise traffic calming and speed reduction in villages and the use of cycle and walking infrastructure in both towns and villages.

3.    The allocation of strategic CIL be applied only to areas with allocated housing sites which generate CIL (with the exception of ‘exception housing sites’ of six or more houses).

4.    To ensure fairness in the allocation of strategic CIL funding by separating the strategic funding generated from the significant development in Bexhill and those of rural areas and applying each separately.

5.    To create a prioritised long list of projects that would be funded by strategic CIL generated by RDC Members and officers, infrastructure providers and parishes and towns though a consultation with proposed projects supported by a short outline rationale.

6.    A final list of CIL projects to be recommended once a long list had been created and assessed and this to form the IDP.

7.    The final list of projects and timings of projects to be funded based on the analysis of receipts currently being undertaken and prioritised to ensure ‘must do’ projects take priority over ‘would like/be good to do’ projects.

8.    Projects be funded as CIL was received (for the avoidance of doubt not to take loans against the Council’s reserves or borrowings).

9.    For infrastructure projects in towns and villages where the project was specific to that location that the town or village part funds a meaningful share of the project through either their own CIL fund or through other funding sources (this would include for example, sporting facilities, footpaths). Note: Infrastructure on roads with 2,000 car movements a day or more or on a main trunk road be eligible to attract full strategic CIL funding for traffic calming/management improvements.

During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·         It was noted that the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) would be informed by the current IDP (March 2019).

·         The IFS detailed which projects would or might be funded by CIL.

·         That Members and Parishes be consulted to create a long list of potential projects that could be funded through CIL and those be prioritised against expected receipts of CIL to ensure CIL was allocated to the highest priorities first. (A detailed projection of CIL receipts was currently being undertaken).

·         Joint working on specific infrastructure projects would be essential, particularly where projects overlapped with neighbouring authorities.

·         Significant countywide strategic CIL projects should be included within the Council’s IDP e.g. superfast broadband and high-speed rail etc.

·         Consideration be given to the County Council’s infrastructure projects and how they might influence / effect CIL receipts received by the Council.  It was important that all projects were prioritised within the IDP and that the Council only funded appropriate projects.  The Planning Policy Manager advised that the Council would be liaising with a large number of infrastructure providers to ascertain the critical infrastructure requirements.  These would be detailed within the new Local Plan, future IDPs and future IFSs.

·         It was suggested that the composition of the CIL Officer Group consist of no more than seven members.  For complete transparency, it was suggested that the Group consist of three Councillors and four officers.

It was agreed that officers considered the Chairman’s proposals as detailed above and the composition of the CIL Officer Group be reconsidered to include Members and reported at the next scheduled meeting to be held on 2 November 2020. 

RESOLVED: That officers considered the Chairman’s proposals and reconsidered the composition of the CIL Officer Group to include Members and reported at the next meeting scheduled to be held on 2 November 2020.