APPLICANT’S GUIDE TO SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION TO MODIFY OR DISCHARGE A PLANNING OBLIGATION

INTRODUCTION

This application form should be used to request the modification or discharge of a planning obligation including:

(a)Obligations created prior to 25 October 1991: for example those created under Section 12 of the Buckinghamshire County Council Act 1957 and Section 52 of theTown and Country Planning Act 1971. If the Council declines to modify or discharge the obligation(s) you have the right to refer the matter to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) (the successor to the Lands Tribunal).

(b)Obligations created after 25 October 1991 where the obligation is contained in a legal agreement that is dated less than 5 years before the date of your application. If the Council declines to modify or discharge the obligation(s) you have no right of appeal.

(c)Obligations created after 25 October 1991 and the obligation is contained in a legal agreement that is dated more than 5 years before the date of your application. The Council will have eight weeks to determine your application. If the Council has not given notice of its decision and you have not agreed with the Council in writing that the period in which the decision shall be given may be extended, you may appeal to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for the Secretary of State to make a decision. You will have six months to appeal.

Section 106A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 provided that a planning obligation may be modified or discharged by agreement between the parties, or in default of such agreement, by application to the Local Planning Authority at the end of the period of five years beginning with the date when the obligation was entered into.

The 1992 Town and Country Planning (Modification and Discharge of Planning Obligations) Regulations (SI1992/2832) confirmed that an application could only be made after five years in order to benefit from the Regulations (including for example the right to appeal to the Secretary of State). The Council, upon receipt of such an application, can decide that the obligation should continue in effect without modification, or discharge the obligation or modify the obligation.

As applicant you are required to give notice of the application made under the Regulations to any person whom, on the day 21 days before the date of the application, against whom the planning obligation is enforceable, and whose name and address is known to the applicant.

Wycombe District Council has decided that this application form should also be used for requests which do not fall within the Regulations set out in (a) and (b) above. There is no national application form currently available on the Planning Portal.

Six copies of the form, site plan and any other documents will be required to be submitted. Please ensure that all information supplied is correct. Photocopies are accepted.

1.Type of Application

Please state whether the application is to seek to modify or discharge the obligation. This form can be used to modify some obligations and discharge others; in this event please tick both boxes.

2Applicant

3Agent

The applicant is the name of the person for who this application is being made. If you are using an agent to submit this application all future correspondence will be with the agent.

4Postal address of the site to which the obligation relates

Please give the full postal address or as complete a description of the land as you can. A plan of the site will also need to be submitted.

5Nature of the applicant’s interest in the land

Please give exact details of your interest in the land.

6Provide sufficient information to enable the authority to identify the planning obligation

The information should include:

(a)The planning permission reference number to which the obligation relates

(b)The date of the legal agreement that contains the obligation

(c)The precise obligation or obligations

Where you seek to modify an obligation, you should describe how you would wish the obligation to be modified.

7Reasons for applying

Please set out your reasons in full.

8Signature

Please sign and date the form.

Site Plan

Please identify the site in red on the site plan which should be based on Ordnance Survey data. The plan should contain enough detail to locate the site, for instance two named roads. The plan should be of a scale of 1:2500 (rural areas) and 1:1250 (urban areas).

Fees

There is no fee for making this application. The Council’s Legal Department will require their costs be met for modifying or discharging any obligation and will contact you separately. Our Legal Department will require an undertaking to meet their costs before they carry out any work with regard to a legal agreement.

Please send your completed application to:

Planning and Sustainability

Wycombe District Council

Queen Victoria Road

High Wycombe

Bucks

HP11 1BB

G:\DevControl\B- PI Letters\Chris Steuart\CHRIS FOLDERS\Procedures\mods106acknApplicantsGuidance.doc / Dated: January 2011