Request:
“Please can you list all S106, S278 and Community Infrastructure Levy payments that have been received or are expected by Devon County Council in conjunction with planning application 03/P1900 and if appropriate any subsequent applications or variations of conditions, relating to the Cranbrook new town?
For each contribution received please provide the following information:
a) Name of contribution
b) Purpose of contribution
c) Date received
d) Amount received
e) The legal documents (e.g. S106 agreements) in which this contribution is specified
For each contribution expected please provide the following information:
a) Name of contribution
b) Purpose of contribution
c) Date or other conditions under which payment is expected
d) Amount expected
e) The legal documents (e.g. S106 agreements) in which this contribution is specified
For any contributions that have not been paid as scheduled please state:
a) Name of contribution
b) Purpose of contribution
c) Date or other conditions under which payment was originally expected
d) Amount originally expected
e) Whether payment is now expected in future
f) Date or other conditions under which payment is now expected
g) Amount now expected
h) The legal documents (e.g. S106 agreements) in which this contribution is specified.”
Response:
Please note that Devon County Council (DCC) is not a Community Infrastructure Levy collecting authority, meaning that we do not hold any information relating to Community Infrastructure Levies. This information would be held by the relevant District/City council who has responsibility for this function. For the Cranbrook site this would be East Devon District Council.
With regard to Section 106 and Section 278 Agreements, unfortunately, Devon County Council is unable to respond to the questions outlined in your request under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests which exceed the cost limit of £450 (equating to 18 hours of time).
Whilst some of the information you have requested does sit within our electronic and paper filing systems, these systems are not set up to easily provide us with the type of information you have requested.
Some of the requested information is held within our Legal Team but is not held in one central location as some is held on disc, some in hard copy and some manually. To pull this information together we estimate would take in the region of 10 hours. Our Highways and Finance Teams would then need to cross-reference the information held by Legal with their own records, (which, again, are not held centrally in one place), in order to answer all of the questions raised, which we anticipate taking in the region of 50 hours, which clearly exceeds the 18 hours which public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.
It should also be noted that DCC would not hold details of all the Section 106 Agreements relating to this site, as it would only be privy to those directly connected to County Council functions.
Brian Hensley, our Development Manager for Highways and Transport, has kindly agreed to speak to you about your request should you wish to receive assistance with refining your request to fit into the cost limit as defined above, or to ask any specific questions relating to this site. Brian can be contacted by calling 01392 383000.