8. COMMUNITY FACILITIES & INFRASTRUCTURE PROVISION

Introduction

8.1 The focus of this chapter extends from nursery education through to secondary education, and from social, health and veterinary facilities through to cemetery provision.Policies relating to the University of Essex and Colchester Institute are contained within Chapter 9.

8.2 Far-reaching changes have had, and are likely to continue to have, major policy implications, specific examples being:

• The expansion of nursery education;

• The autonomy of many local organisations, such as schools, doctors’ surgeries and hospital trusts who now independently manage their own financial affairs and are seeking to maximise their assets;

• The fact that private-sector funding from developers is increasingly required in order to provide major new community facilities, particularly in locations where deficiencies currently exist. The National Lottery is an added source of possible funding.

8.3 The Plan seeks to ensure that the provision of community facilities, including essential services and infrastructure, is closely linked to the construction of new development. Furthermore, developers will be expected to fund such provision where it is specifically required in order to serve their proposed developments.

Objectives

8.4 The Plan’s objectives in the context of this chapter are:

(a) To seek the retention of key local community facilities where local need still exists;

(b) To relate the provision of community facilities to the number and location of people and homes and to promote the efficient use of existing facilities;

(c) To encourage the provision of community facilities in order to make good deficiencies that have arisen from high rates of housing development in the past;

(d) To ensure that new buildings and alterations include appropriate means of access and facilities for people with disabilities or other special access needs;

(e) To encourage the provision of workplace childcare facilities in major new developments.

Policies

DEVELOPMENT CONTROL CONSIDERATIONS

8.5 It is important to note that all policies contained within this chapter must be read alongside the overall Development Control Policy (DC1). This policy sets out the standard planning criteria applicable to all forms of development. The relevant criteria will be used to assess the suitability of any proposal in addition to the following detailed policy guidance.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES PROVISION

8.6 The Borough Council believes that it is in the public interest to ensure that essential community facilities, services and infrastructure are all available in close conjunction with the completion of major developments. Therefore, a planning obligation will usually be required prior to the granting of planning permission so as to secure essential facilities, services and infrastructure. This includes, in appropriate cases, provision of affordable housing, bus services, educational contributions, public open space, playing fields, children’s play facilities, on and off-site highway improvements, parking provision and pedestrian and cycle routes. Community centres, health facilities, local shopping facilities, libraries, churches, youth centres, recycling facilities and facilities for emergency services may well also be applicable in respect of major new development (see Table 3 for site- specific requirements for new housing allocations). Planning permission will not be granted where development would bring about a reduction in services below minimum acceptable levels or where shortfalls exist, and where a planning obligation has not been secured to remedy the shortfall.

Planning Obligations

8.7 Circular 1/97 details where planning obligation may be reasonable. It must be for a planning purpose. The Borough Council will consider it reasonable where the obligation is so directly related to the proposed development and the use of the land after its completion that the development ought not to be permitted without it. It will also consider it reasonable if the substance of the planning obligation brings about an improved scheme, or enhances the development or its relationship with the local environment. The Borough Council will only seek a planning obligation that is fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the proposed development and reasonable in all other aspects

Planning Conditions

8.8 Where a condition requiring works to be carried out before a development commences is appropriate (a Grampian-style condition), this will be used rather than a planning obligation. Where such a condition is inappropriate, planning permission will be refused if the Borough Council is satisfied that the development should not go ahead without the provision of a service or facility and where:

• the organisation responsible for providing the service or facility has no project programmed for its provision; or

• the project is programmed for a period more than five years ahead; and, in either case,

• the owners (for the purposes of a S106 agreement) are unwilling to enter a planning obligation to meet the cost or their proportion of the cost of bringing forward the provision of a necessary service or facility.

Community Benefits (general)

8.9 The Plan seeks to concentrate development in larger settlements where facilities are, or can be expected to be, adequate to meet the needs of that development. Frequently, however, there can be a mismatch between the level of service and infrastructure provision and the rate at which development will come forward. Where development is likely to place an undue strain on local services or infrastructure, the Council will negotiate a contribution to ensure that the development can take place without causing undue harm. When the provision of benefits on the application site itself is impracticable, provision elsewhere – or, if appropriate, a contribution towards such provision – will be required. Where a planning application is for only part of a larger area planned for development, at least an appropriate pro rata provision of, or contribution towards, any such community or infrastructure benefits will be required. This assessment will be limited to schemes involving ten dwellings or more and to major commercial development. The policy will apply to “windfall” sites as well as to allocations made within this plan.

Community Halls

8.10 A number of the Borough’s settlements currently possess older halls whose size and facilities are inadequate for meeting the modern needs of communities which have often substantially increased in population size. Proposals to upgrade and enlarge existing facilities, and to create new ones, will be supported subject to all of the following being satisfactory:

(a) Siting;

(b) Design;

(c) Use of materials;

(d) Landscaping;

(e) Impacts on the local environment.

8.11 Where development creates a need for new, improved or enlarged community or village- hall facilities, developers will be expected to fund its provision directly. This may range from small upgrades or extensions to existing halls right through to the actual provision of purpose-built community centres for much larger housing schemes.

8.12 A proposal for residential development will not be permitted in a location where existing community-centre or village-hall facilities are either lacking or inadequate to meet the additional needs that would be generated unless:

(a) it will contribute a fair and reasonable sum towards the upgrading and/or enlargement of existing facilities; or

(b) it will establish new facilities to meet the extra demand that will be generated.

 

LIBRARY FACILITIES

8.13 A branch library is proposed for Highwoods, and a site – next to the community centre at Highwoods Square – has been agreed. The Plan supports the retention of existing library facilities and other such key community facilities (see Policy CF4).

 

CF2 A new branch library is proposed at Highwoods.

ACCESS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

8.14 There are statutory requirements placed on Local Planning Authorities regarding access facilities for disabled people under the provisions of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The 1970 Act requires that the buildings to which the public are admitted, including places of employment and education, should be accessible to disabled people.

8.15 These statutory requirements are amplified by Part M of the 1999 Building Regulations, which require the provision of access and facilities for disabled people in certain classes of new buildings, including dwellings, and the retention of existing provision where extensions and material alterations are carried out. However, the Plan recognises that, whilst location and arrangement of dwellings on site is a matter for planning, the internal layout and the approach to and construction of dwellings is dealt with by the Building Regulations. The provisions of the Highways Act 1980 relate to traffic-management schemes and provision of new street furniture.

8.16 The SPG document entitled “People With Disabilities” contains specific policies relating to housing, shopping, car parking, the pedestrian environment and access to the countryside.

 

CF3 Development will be permitted only if the design and layout of public access to new buildings, developments involving changes of use and major extensions to buildings are accessible to people with impaired mobility. In addition, provision for the needs of the disabled should be made in all other proposals for development where there is public access, particularly those including highway proposals, traffic-management schemes, car parks, footpaths and those requiring the provision of new street furniture and open space.

RETENTION OF KEY COMMUNITY FACILITIES

8.17 There are a number of facilities and services that play a vital role in maintaining cohesive local communities. The Borough Council is keen to ensure that these are retained, particularly in instances where their loss would either leave communities totally lacking in such provision or give rise to unsatisfactory deficiencies. In such circumstances, proposals that fail to provide replacement facilities (either on site or within a reasonable walking distance) will be refused unless they are no longer needed. Applicants will be expected to submit detailed documentary evidence proving the lack of such local community need.

8.18 The following are examples of the types of key community facilities and services covered by this policy: village halls, general stores/post offices, doctors’ surgeries, public houses, car repair garages and libraries. The re-use of existing school facilities is covered by Policy CF5, which applies to facilities within communities throughout the whole Borough, irrespective of whether they are located in an urban or in a rural area.

 

CF4 In order to ensure that key community facilities and services are retained, redevelopment that would result in their loss will not be permitted unless: (a) it provides replacement facilities of an equal or greater benefit within reasonable walking distance; or (b) it is demonstrated that there is no longer a local need for the facility.

EDUCATION – GENERAL

8.19 Short term accommodation problems at existing schools are often met by the provision of relocatable classrooms, for which permission will be granted, subject satisfactory siting. These are not, however, generally seen as being a suitable long-term solution to accommodation problems.

8.20 Within the Plan period, it is likely that schools or their grounds, including detached playing fields, will become surplus to educational requirements. In their current use, these are important community assets and the Council would wish to see those retained in community use wherever possible or alternative educational or community provision made. Applicants will, therefore, need to show that appropriate steps have previously been taken to find an alternative community use. Where it is adequately demonstrated that no such alternative community use is achievable, proposals will be considered in relation to policy criteria (a) , (b) , (d) and (e) listed in the overall Development Control Policy.

8.21 However, the Private Open Space designation, which applies to the Borough’s secondary schools, recognises that the creation of new educational buildings (eg classroom provision) may need to impinge sometimes onto existing school playing fields. The Policy does not seek to prevent this from occurring where necessary. Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 requires the prior consent of the Secretary of State for Education and Employment before a school may dispose of a school playing field or change its use to any other purpose other than for the educational purposes of a maintained school or for recreation. This requirement applies both to land currently used as a school playing field and to land used for such purpose during the previous 10 years.

 

CF5 A proposal for the re-use of a school facility that is surplus to educational requirements – including any building, playing field or other land – will be permitted only if it is for an alternative community purpose on site, or makes provision for improvements to local education or community facilities of equal or greater benefit.

NURSERY & PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

8.22 The development of day nurseries and playgroups can remove barriers to employment for young parents, especially those who are single, and assist in the essential socialising process for the children themselves. However, proposals for this kind of use often relate to ordinary domestic dwellings or other buildings in residential areas, quite often on well-trafficked roads or near busy junctions. It is therefore important that traffic generated by this type of use does not cause problems on the highway or to neighbouring land users, while also ensuring that buildings within their curtilages can cope in terms of room for outdoor play and car parking. A further concern arises from proposals to intensify the existing use, as these could mean over-dominance of a site by an expanded building, which could also be quite out of character with surrounding buildings, in terms of size, massing or overall design. Therefore, any proposal for the establishment or expansion of a playgroup or a day nursery will be subject to the criteria set out in Policy DC1.

Work-Based Day Nurseries

8.23 It has become increasingly evident that the labour market since the 1990s has become tighter in the sense that the numbers of young people seeking jobs has shown a relative decrease. It is equally clear that significant and growing numbers of younger adult men and women, particularly single parents, have been prevented from entering the labour market by the absence or high cost of day nursery facilities.

8.24 It is in the interests of employers, single parents and similarly economically inactive adults, as well as in the wider interests of the local economy, to try to reduce this artificial barrier to entering the labour market by encouraging suitable work-based day nursery facilities in all major new commercial developments. Specific childcare provision facilities will be required within the proposed employment allocations at Tollgate and Cuckoo Farm (see Chapter 14, “Employment”) under the provisions of Policy CF6.

8.25 The Council will therefore seek to enter into a S106 Agreement with developers for this purpose in order to cover such central aspects as the establishment and continuing provision for meeting revenue costs, and access to work-based day nursery facilities for single parents and other vulnerable economically inactive adults from local communities.

8.26 The Agreement will also identify when the childcare facilities will become operational. This should be at an early enough stage to meet satisfactorily any need that is generated by the development.

 

CF6 Developers will be required to provide and make provision for the continuing operation of purpose-built work-based day nursery facilities in all major commercial developments over 23,250 sq m (250,000 sq ft) or those that would generate employment for more than 1,000 people.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

8.27 The Local Plan makes provision for new, or expansion of existing, primary and secondary school facilities to serve areas of new residential development. Developers of housing schemes will be expected to contribute to any extra school capacity in direct relationship to their development where there is insufficient capacity in relation to catchment areas as defined in current national guidance. In each case the precise level and type of contribution will be the subject of negotiation between the Local Planning Authority, the Local Education Authority and the prospective developer (or developers where new or expanded schools would serve large-scale new housing allocations). The developer will be expected to make a contribution – fairly related in scale and kind to the proposed development – to the cost of meeting that additional need, provided that the Local Education Authority proposes to utilise that contribution as part of its capital spending programme and to make such a provision within a reasonable period of time. The likely scale of contributions, including a minimum threshold for triggering contributions, will be set out in SPG, which will be updated from time to time during the lifetime of the Plan.

 

CF7 The Plan makes provision for new, or expansion of existing, primary and secondary school facilities to serve areas of new residential development. Developers will be expected to contribute to any extra school capacity required in direct relationship with their schemes where there is insufficient capacity based on current national guidelines. Negotiations between the relevant authorities and the prospective developer or developers will take place in each case on the basis that the developer’s contribution(s) is/are fairly related in scale and kind to the proposed development. The starting point for such negotiations will be based on current and up-to-date formulae provided by the Local Education Authority and reinforced by Supplementary Planning Guidance produced jointly by the Local Planning and Education Authorities. This Supplementary Planning Guidance will be issued and updated at regular intervals throughout the Plan period.

HEALTH TRUST FACILITIES

8.28 The Borough Council has a role in promoting the provision of health facilities, as a statutory consultee in respect of the Essex Strategic Health Authority’s forward development programme and working in partnership with Colchester Primary Care Trust. The policy seeks to enable the provision of the requirements of the Health Authority and the various NHS Trusts, including, Essex Rivers Healthcare, North Essex Mental Health, Partnership NHS Trust, New Possibilities and the Essex Ambulance Trust. Support and encouragement will be given to the agencies providing health facilities to ensure that there is adequate provision throughout the Borough, especially in priority areas.

8.29 The Plan provides for the later phases of hospital development at the District General Hospital site, subject to the proposals being satisfactory in terms of design and transportation impact. Development will include the re-provision of nursing accommodation from Constable Close to partly within the District General Hospital. (Nurses’ accommodation will not be required to contribute to the Northern Approaches Road under Policy ME1.)

 

CF8 The Plan makes provision for the following: District General Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester (later phases).

MEDICAL AND VETERINARY FACILITIES

8.30 The development of a comprehensive and effective network of neighbourhood “primary healthcare centres” throughout the Borough will generally be encouraged (eg via the expansion of doctors’ surgeries into larger medical centres incorporating a wide range of community health facilities and services). It is recognised that such facilities often need to adapt to meet increasing demand for services and/or to achieve higher standards of operational efficiency. However, in examining proposals for this kind of use, regard will be given to the interests of highway safety, neighbouring amenities and the often residential character of the surrounding area. In this context, the Development Control Policy (DC1) will apply to both medical and veterinary facilities.

8.31 The “Community Care and Children’s Services Plan” for north-east Essex recognises the increasing importance being given by local agencies and voluntary groups to joint working arrangements in order to better pool ideas and resources and target them at the areas of greatest need. Greenstead and Highwoods are two area based projects under way which are “helping local communities to help themselves”.

8.32 The most convenient option for the service provider is often expansion at the established site for that patient catchment area. This may well be an acceptable solution in planning terms; for example, where internal layouts are to be changed to gain better space standards, but where little extra traffic will be generated as a result. Expansion at existing sites cannot be accepted where this would seriously mar the character of the local environment and/or significantly worsen neighbouring amenities through, for example, extra on-street parking.

8.33 Major new residential developments will be required to incorporate appropriate primary healthcare facilities (eg community health centres or doctors’ surgeries – see also Table 3). The final level of healthcare provision will be agreed in master plans for the identified sites, following consultation with the relevant health bodies.

CEMETERY PROVISION

8.34 This Policy indicates the general principles to be applied to new and expanded cemetery provision. Specific provision is likely to be made during the Plan period at Tiptree (adjacent to the United Reformed Church, Chapel Road), at West Mersea and in Wivenhoe. Additional cemetery provision will also take place in association with the Garrison redevelopment as adjuncts to the existing adjoining cemetery. More detailed indication of this provision is set out in Chapter 17. However, there is no specific reason why other private open land cannot be used for cemetery purposes, provided the requirements of general Development Control Policy DC1 and other relevant Local Plan policies, notably Policy P1, are met. Some environmental benefits may arise out of new burial provision in the form of woodland and other green cemetery sites.

 

CF10 New Cemeteries and other burial places will be permitted on existing private undeveloped land, provided that the criteria for assessing new development set out in Policy DC1 and the requirements of other relevant Local Plan policies are satisfied.

PLACES OF WORSHIP

8.35 Places of religious worship play an important part in providing community facilities in the Borough. Such facilities will be permitted in appropriate locations, including residential areas, with regard being given to the character of the surroundings and the need to protect the amenities of nearby residents, in accordance with the criteria set out in Policy DC1.