As a councillor in the West of Northumberland I am a member of the Tynedale Local Area Planning Committee which considers the planning applications not decided by planning officers under their delegation. These tend to be the larger applications, those in the green belt or those that have attracted a lot of legitimate public opposition.

Recently we considered an application to build a 46 retirement apartments on the site of the old Matthew Charlton yard between Jewsons and the Wentworth athletics track. It is a well designed scheme that will be in demand but councillors were unhappy that such a large development was only paying £138,000 as a Section 106 contribution to social housing.

The applicant had argues that the initially requested sum of £910,000 was not viable and after much back and forth I suggested that a mechanism be included in the agreement to review it at the end. If the applicant is right about the viability they will quite rightly only pay the collar amount of £138,000 but if they do make more money on the development then the council will get a greater contribution of up to £910,000. My proposal that any extra contribution achieved is spent on social housing was agreed.

As chairman of the Council’s Communities and Place Scrutiny Committee I will be talking to the Director of Planning can be included automatically in Section 106 agreements. The fear amongst councillors was that the larger developers can afford consultants to argue down these contributions and this may both act as a deterrent and generate more money for social housing and other projects.

https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/24787441.approval-granted-retirement-home-complex-hexham