Quarterly meeting 11 July 2017
City Hall,
5.30 to 7.00 pm

The next quarterly meeting is next week on Tuesday 11 July.
BCC officers will update us on

  • the Local Plan Review what it will cover and the programme for the review to publication
  • the WoE Joint Spatial Plan- update on time table
  • Neighbourhood Planning –applications for re-designation
  • Urban Living consultation process and timetable
  • Prior Approval and Reserved Matters: how does the community have a say in these sort of applications.

If you have any items for the agenda which you would like to raise please let me know.

Community Infrastructure Levy and Neighbourhood Partnerships.

Those of you who were involved with your Neighbourhood Partnerships will, no doubt, be aware of the current council administration’s emerging proposals with regard to the method of allocating the locally devolved portion of CIL receipts (15%) now that the NP organisation is no longer supported.
There is as yet no clarity on the proposals for redistribution of the locally devolved portion of CIL outside the Neighbourhood Partnership boundaries.

The central pot (85%) retained by the council is allocated to 5% administration charges and 80% to projects listed on the Regulation 123 list here
These are

  • Bus Rapid Transit (Ashton Vale to Bristol Temple Meads and City Centre) South Bristol Link Bus Rapid Transit (North Fringe to Hengrove)
  • Infrastructure schemes in the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone (excluding site specific highway access / public realm works required to directly mitigate the impact of proposed developments)
  • Existing Parks and Green Spaces identified in the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy
  • School Schemes set out in the Schools Organisation Strategy
  • Infrastructure schemes to support the regeneration of Lockleaze
  • Infrastructure schemes to support the regeneration of Knowle West
  • Strategic Flood Defence measures

The current administration has confirmed that it has allocated the central CIL receipts to the construction of the Arena, as was done by the previous administration. CIL allocation was reconfirmed in April 2017.

Central government regulations set out how CIL can be used thus:

“Local authorities must spend the levy on infrastructure needed to support the development of their area, and they will decide what infrastructure is needed. The levy is intended to focus on the provision of new infrastructure and should not be used to remedy pre-existing deficiencies in infrastructure provision unless those deficiencies will be made more severe by new development.
The levy can be used to increase the capacity of existing infrastructure or to repair failing existing infrastructure, if that is necessary to support development.
Local authorities must allocate at least 15% of levy receipts to spend on priorities that should be agreed with the local community in areas where development is taking place. This can increase to a minimum of 25% in certain circumstances. ”

If an area has made a Neighbourhood Development Plan, the locally devolved portion of CIL is 25%.

There is a lot of council discussion going on about whether locally devolved CIL income can be moved to support areas of deprivation, what type of non-infrastructure projects it can support, and how decisions can be made on locally devolved CIL allocation.

Residents’ Planning groups may have an opinion on some of this.