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Contact: Email: Democratic.Services@sevenoaks.gov.uk 01732 227165
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Declarations of interest or Predetermination Including any interests not already registered Minutes: There were no additional declarations of interest. |
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Declarations of Lobbying Minutes: There were none. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: The Chairman explained the procedure that would be followed. It was agreed that all debate would be reserved until all the applications had been heard. The Planning Officer (Policy) presented a report which advised Members that the first round of bids had been open for 12 weeks from 1 September 2017 to 1 December 2017. Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions had been collected on qualifying developments and the council had a mandatory responsibility to pass a portion of CIL contributions to Town and Parish Councils where development had occurred within a 6-month period. Cabinet had agreed that all Parish and Town Councils in the District would receive 25% of CIL contributions collected and would be calculated against the top CIL charging rate, resulting in discretionary ‘top up’ payments made by the District Council. The council could recover up to 5% of CIL receipts for administration costs. Members were advised that there was a typographical error in the report and the total value of CIL receipts passed to Town and Parish Councils as of the 31 March 2018 was £1.1million.
The process for assessing applications was a two-stage process as set out in the council’s Constitution and all bids were judged on merit.
Application A – Upper Darent Flood Alleviation Scheme
Members were advised that the proposal was for a flood alleviation scheme for the Upper Darent River which sought £29,000.00. The scheme was located along the A25 corridor between Westerham and Sundridge and looked to make a number of improvements and works to reduce the risk of flooding to existing properties along the A25 corridor. It would also mitigate the risk of flooding on the highway. The proposal demonstrated strong economic, social and environmental benefits to the community; partnership working with other organisations’ and the majority of project costs secured through match-funding.
The Board was addressed by the following speakers:
Members asked questions of the speakers and Officers. Members were advised that £145,000.00 had been allocated from DEFRA following an early funding process and there had been no control over what could be applied for. More than 20 businesses and homes would benefit from the flood alleviation measures and that the main routes into Westerham would also remain accessible. Members were advised by the Officer that planning permission was not listed as a key consideration as not all the works planned to be undertaken would require planning permission. The agreed scoring matrix was used and, in the Officer’s view, other areas outweighed the lack of planning permission in place. As a statutory Government body, the Environment Agency had it owns permissive powers to carry out works to watercourses under its own jurisdiction without planning permission.
Application B - Four Elms Playground (Hever Parish Council)
The application sought £3,000.00 to fund the removal of the existing, underused playground equipment and replace it with new accessible play equipment which would ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |