Detailed Project Plan

Contents

1.Introduction & Purpose

2.Objectives of the PPA

3.General Principles

4.Background & Context

5.Procedural Arrangements

General Arrangements

Confidentiality

6.Resources & Liaison

Communication

Meetings

7.Application Project Programme

Date of expected submission of planning application

8.Agreement Declaration

Appendix 1: Agreed Application Documents

Appendix 2: Project Plan

Appendix 3: Project Teams

1.Introduction & Purpose

1.1.Essex County Council is the determining Authority for the proposed development.

1.2.The applicant is Click here to enter text.

1.3.The site is Click here to enter text.. This site Choose an item.identified in Choose an item. (Click here to enter text.).

1.4.The applicant has submitted a pre-application submission, seeking advice / regarding a Choose an item.development.

The pre-application submission is to be supported by an agreed set out documents as set out in

1.5.Appendix 1: Agreed Application Documentsof this agreement.

1.6.This Planning Performance Agreement is an agreement between Essex County Council and the Applicant to provide a project management framework for handling this pre-application submission, with the intention to agree a follow up agreement to cover the major planning application process through to determination. This framework seeks to appropriately resource these discussions and should improve and speed up the pre-application advice process by committing both parties to an agreed timetable containing “milestones” that make clear what level of resources and actions are required and ensure that all key planning issues are properly considered and resolved.

1.7.This agreement does not give a guarantee of planning permission. It relates to the process of considering development proposals and not the decision itself.

1.8.This agreement is made pursuant to Section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972 Section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003 and Section 1 of the Localism Act 2011.

1.9.Nothing in this agreement shall restrict or inhibit the Applicant(s) from exercising their right of appeal under Section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

2.Objectives of the PPA

2.1.To establish a shared commitment to an agreed timetable to enable the assessment, consideration and determination of a planning application in due course;

2.2.To identify key determining issues, and agree steps to resolve them wherever possible;

2.3.To identify and address the detailed requirements of any planning conditions and planning obligations which would be necessary, should a planning application be deemed acceptable in principle;

2.4.To achieve the determination of a planning application relating to land at the site edged red on the site layout plan/location Plan.

NOTE: This PPA does not guarantee the applicants will secure a planning permission from the Council. All planning applications are determined by the Council as Local Planning Authority without prejudice and must be judged on their own merits when assessed against local plan policies and nationally accepted relevant material planning considerations.

3.General Principles

3.1.The objective of this Planning Performance Agreement is one of co-operation and consistency throughout the negotiation and discussion relating to the pre-application process to provide a degree of certainty for the intended outcomes and to improve the quality of the project and of the planning decision.

3.2.Essex County Council and the Applicant agree to be governed at all times by the following principles:

Principle 1:To work together in good faith, and to respect each other’s interests and confidentiality;
Principle 2:To commit and provide information promptly and in a proactive way to support and manage the development management process, in accordance with the Performance Standards contained in paragraph 4.4 of this agreement;
Principle 3:To work in a transparent and consistent manner in order that outcomes can be anticipated, defined and understood;
Principle 4:To help to facilitate (where appropriate) effective involvement and consultation with the surrounding community, statutory and other stakeholders, and any individual or group with a legitimate interest;
Principle 5:To reach agreed ‘milestones’ that will remain fixed unless otherwise agreed by all parties involved;
Principle 6:To identify and involve specialist consultees and advisors including authority officers/managers where appropriate;
Principle 7:All parties will seek to use the pre-application period to address matters that would otherwise arise via planning conditions, and significantly reduce the level of potential conditions, particularly in respect to those preventing commencement of works.

4.Background & Context

4.1.Click here to enter text.

5.Procedural Arrangements

General Arrangements

5.1.Click here to enter text. (Essex County Council) and Click here to enter text. (agent/applicant) will be responsible for the day to day management of all actions, tasks and personnel required to achieve the objectives of the PPA

5.2.The Project Plan required to achieve the objectives of the PPA is shown in Appendix 2: Project Plan.

The Project Teams required to implement the Project Plan are shown in Project Programme – Post application Phase

Number of Week(s) / W/C / Post application phase of programme tasks
Eg Application to be submitted to ECC
Eg Application to be registered and validated by ECC
Eg Public and statutory consultations
Eg Identify project milestones, key meeting dates, consideration by ECC Teams, reviews etc.
Eg ECC Planning Committee report preparation
Eg Target ECC Planning Committee consideration

5.3.Appendix 3: Project Teams.

5.4.The Steering Group, co-ordinated by Click here to enter text., will meet at least once every four weeks to review progress and resolve issues. The Steering Group will be the key decision making body, considering and determining any recommendations on key issues made by the relevant Working Groups.

5.5.Essex County Council's Minerals and Waste Planning Manager will ensure that suitable operational arrangements are in place to provide the necessary planning resources and capacity for the duration of the project plan.

5.6.Internal ECCconsultees (for example Place Services or the Highway Authority) will respond within a maximum of 10 working days. Where possible, the developer or agent will provide advance notice of submission of documents in order to assist with the management of workloads.

5.7.ECC officers will use their best endeavours to secure and maintain the timely response of external consultees, but ultimately cannot be held responsible for any failure on their part to undertake prompt consideration of material.

Any disagreement between the parties arising out of, or connected with, this PPA shall be referred to the Senior Officer listed in Project Programme – Post application Phase

Number of Week(s) / W/C / Post application phase of programme tasks
Eg Application to be submitted to ECC
Eg Application to be registered and validated by ECC
Eg Public and statutory consultations
Eg Identify project milestones, key meeting dates, consideration by ECC Teams, reviews etc.
Eg ECC Planning Committee report preparation
Eg Target ECC Planning Committee consideration

5.8.Appendix 3: Project Teams. The Senior Representatives shall hold discussions to attempt to resolve the dispute amicably on a full and final basis within 5 working days of receiving notice from either of the parties.

Confidentiality

5.9.Confidentiality protocols will be agreed and applied to specific issues and/or information as they emerge.

5.10.Due to the Freedom of information Act (2000) or the Local Government (Access to information Act (1995), potentially any formal information submitted may appear in the public domain.

6.Fees and costs

All charges are based on estimated officer time and hourly costs and aim to provide cost recovery only.

Please note: where a scheme falls within the definition criteria for more than one category, the highest applicable fee will be charged unless determined otherwise by Minerals and Waste Planning Manager.

Category / Definition / Inception Meeting / Subsequent charge per meeting (3 hours)
Major Development / Mineral or Waste related development1, including variations to existing permissions, or other built development1 with a proposed application site greater than 1ha or greater than 1000m2 proposed floor space, but excluding Large Scale Major Development (as described below). / £1000 (inclusive of VAT) / As agreed at Inception Meeting
Large Scale Major Development / All new mineral workings covering more than 15 hectares or involve the extraction of more than 30,000 tonnes of mineral per year or installations (including landfill sites) for the deposit, recovery and/or disposal of household, industrial and/or commercial wastes where new capacity is created to hold more than 50,000 tonnes per year, or to hold waste on a site of 10 hectares or more or have the potential for a significant adverse environmental impact (i.e. likely to require Environmental Impact Assessment).[1] / £2000 (inclusive of VAT) / As agreed at Inception Meeting

Notes:The inception meeting will last for up to three hours, to be used for the completion of the PPA. The provision of verbal advice would be subsequently confirmed in writing (if required).

6.1.This development falls into a Choose an item.category, for which the standard starting fee is Choose an item. The developer agrees to pay this fee, which covers the Inception Meeting for the completion and monitoring of PPA document, together with the provision of written confirmation of advice given at the Inception Meeting (if required).

6.2.It is anticipated that up to Click here to enter text.further meetings will be required in the post-submission period, most likely to be (but not restricted to being)Click here to enter text.

6.3.These meetings have been included in the Project Plan shown at Appendix 2.

6.4.The fee for these additional meetings has been agreed by both parties as a total of Choose an item. Fees for any further meetings required in addition to those shown in the Project Plan at Appendix 2 will be agreed between both parties as the need arises.

6.5.The developer also undertakes to cover any reasonable (and pre-agreed) independent appraisal and legal costs incurred by the Council in respect of this PPA.

7.Key issues to be resolved and supporting documentation

7.1.This may include (but not exclusively):

  • Design and Layout (inc. sustainability and use of natural resources);
  • Highways and Transportation (inc. access to, from and within the site);
  • Viability and development appraisal;
  • Detailed heads of terms for legal agreement(s) and planning conditions;
  • Phasing;
  • Delivery and Implementation;
  • Heritage Impact Assessment;
  • Land Contamination Assessment;
  • Arboricultural and landscaping issues.
  • other issues as appropriate. See Validation Checklist for further information

8.Resources & Liaison

8.1.The parties to this agreement will endeavour to make available members of the Project Team to facilitate meetings within 7 working days from a formal written request, unless otherwise agreed.

8.2.The parties will also share with each other project tools (such as traffic models, visualisation models and development viability information) subject to protecting commercial confidentiality and Freedom of Information considerations.

Communication

8.3.Communications, be it via email or hard copy correspondence shall be acknowledged within 5 working days with a suitable response where possible.

8.4.Telephone messages shall be returned within 2 working days of receipt.

8.5.Relevant information will be circulated by all parties no later than 3 working days prior to a meeting.

8.6.The Applicant’s Planning Agent to circulate meeting agendas, unless otherwise agreed, no later than 3 working days prior to any meeting.

8.7.Unless otherwise agreed, actions arising from meetings shall be agreed no later than 3 working days after the meeting.

8.8.Unless otherwise agreed, the Applicant’s Planning Agent will circulate minutes no later than 3 working days after the meeting.

8.9.If requested by the Applicant or Planning Agent, ECC shall provide informal feedback on information presented at a meeting within 7 working days from that meeting.

8.10.Formal feedback from pre-application or working group meetings will be provided within 7 working days from that meeting.

Meetings

8.11.Meetings will be attended by the Project Team (unless specific attendance is not required due to meeting topic).

8.12.The applicant’s Planning Agent, in conjunction with the ECC Case Officer, will act as PPA Project Managers and will convene meetings, organise agendas and produce minutes to be agreed by the Project Team.

8.13.Project Team meetings will be held at the times set out in the Project Programme (unless otherwise agreed, or cancelled).

9.Application Project Programme

9.1.The PPA Programme is devised to provide a realistic timeframe for planning and resourcing the pre-application discussions, with the aim of agreeing a submission date. The Applicant/Agent and ECC acknowledge that the timetable may be subject to change, which will be kept under review moving forward. The Project Programme is detailed in Appendix 2: Project Plan.

9.2.It is intended that this agreement would lead to planning application submission date, before which an application stage PPA would be entered into.

9.3.Within the agreed timeframe, meetings will be arranged as above and when considered necessary by agreement, with suggestions of appropriate meetings set out within the Project Programme (Appendix 2: Project Plan).

9.4.If there is a delay in the Project Programme, the Project Team will review whether the Project Programme is still realistic or whether the Project Programme and the Planning Performance Agreement determination timeframe need to be revised. Any revisions to the Planning Performance Agreement determination timeframe shall be agreed in writing by the Applicant and ECC.

Date of expected submission of planning application

9.5.The applicant will lodge a planning application with Essex County Council on Click here to enter a date.

10.Agreement Declaration

10.1.Essex County Council and the Applicant/Agent hereby agree to the content of this Planning Performance Agreement.

10.2.I understand that due to the Freedom of information Act (2000) or the Local Government (Access to information Act (1995), any information given may appear in the public domain.

10.3.I confirm that to the best of my knowledge all of the information submitted herein is accurate and that planning advice is requested and have made the appropriate fee as payment for the service.

10.4.I also agree to pay any additional costs arising from the provision of the service as required, as outlined

Essex County Council
Name: / Position:
Signature:
On Behalf of:
Date:
Agent/Applicant
Name: / Position:
Signature:
On Behalf of:
Date:

Appendix 1: Agreed Application Documents

The following information is requested in order to fully inform any pre-application discussions:

Information Required

Please confirm that you have provided the required information and indicated any supporting documentation you have included with your request. Again, the more information you can provide, the more comprehensive our advice can be. The following list provides examples of types of supporting information which may be relevant to your proposal but is not exhaustive.

  • A site layout plan of not less than 1:500 scale. All requests for pre application advice must include a plan sufficient to identify the location of the site. This should be based on an up-to-date Ordnance Survey map. The plans should identify sufficient roads and/or buildings on land adjoining the site to ensure the exact location of the application is clear. The inclusion of place names may be helpful. The proposed application site should be clearly edged with a red line and any other land in the same ownership should be surrounded by a clear blue line;
  • Drawings and sketches of the proposed development, including, elevations, floor plans, cross- sections and ground levels;
  • Block Plan;
  • Photographs showing the existing appearance of the site;
  • Any additional drawings that help to demonstrate how the proposal relates to its surroundings;
  • A draft design and access statement if appropriate;
  • A draft supporting planning statement if appropriate;
  • Details of consultations undertaken already, e.g. Highways Authority;
  • Area to list any further information that may assist the planning authority in preparing the advice.

In order to accept a request for pre-application advice the LPA will require, as a minimum, a red line site location plan and supporting details outlining the proposed development. Depending on the type of proposed development, there will be other requirements, as outlined below:

For minerals and waste development, required information will normally include:

  • The type of development proposed (e.g. mineral extraction, waste transfer etc.);
  • The type of waste;
  • Proposed annual tonnages/volumes;
  • Proposed vehicle movements and access point.

For County Council development (Regulation 3), required information will include:

  • The location of the proposed building(s) and/or highway(s);
  • The proposed use;
  • Proposed floor space, if known, estimated if not known;
  • Proposed access arrangements.

For further information see the Planning Advice Form and Guidance Notes

When submitting a planning application refer to the Validation Checklist Guidance Note

Appendix 2: Project Plan

ECC and the Applicant/Agent shall work to ensure that the consideration of the proposal is progressed in accordance with the pre-application programme set out below (unless a variation to the pre-application programme is agreed in writing in by both the Applicant and ECC).

Project Programme - Pre-application Phase

Number of Week(s) / W/C / Pre-application phase of programme - tasks
Eg Inception Meeting to be held to discuss submission.
Agreement and signing of the PPA.

Project Programme – Post application Phase

Number of Week(s) / W/C / Post application phase of programme tasks
Eg Application to be submitted to ECC
Eg Application to be registered and validated by ECC
Eg Public and statutory consultations
Eg Identify project milestones, key meeting dates, consideration by ECC Teams, reviews etc.
Eg ECC Planning Committee report preparation
Eg Target ECC Planning Committee consideration

Appendix 3: Project Teams

The project team will comprise of the Applicant’s Team and the ECC Team, as defined below. The Project Team will only be expanded by agreement.

The Applicant’s Team:

Name / Position / Contact Details
Email address / Telephone Number

The ECC Team:

Name / Position / Contact Details
Email address / Telephone Number
Click here to enter text. / Case Officer
Click here to enter text. / Senior Officer
Click here to enter text. /

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[1] See EIA guidance: