CHANGES may be made to the structure of section 106 agreements in the next version of Blaenau Gwent’s Local Development Plan (LDP).

The agreements formalise contributions towards affordable homes or public services between developer and the council, and are expected for developments with more than 10 houses.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Planning Committee on Thursday, January 12, the lack of section 106 agreement on an outline planning application for 13 homes on land at Cemetery Road, Ebbw Vale was brought up for discussion.

The proposal by Jones Building Ltd is for a mix of four and five bedroom houses which would be built individually and would need a further planning application.

In the report that the council’s leisure service suggested that a financial contribution of £45,600 or £3,800 per house is needed to upgrade or refurbish playing provision in the ward.

South Wales Argus: Cemetery Road development site - from UK Grid Reference Finder.

A 10 per cent contribution towards affordable homes was also expected – but both contributions have been waived.

Planning officer, Helen Hinton said: “In this instance the site has been determined as unviable to make the provision.”

Cllr Wayne Hodgins said: “The viability assessment and each plot could in an ideal world return £3,800 to the authority – the section 106 agreements are there for a reason.

“Surely there could be a small contribution to benefit the authority at some point with all this housebuilding.”

Cllr George Humphreys said that he was concerned that if section 106 agreements are “negotiable” then “bigger investors in the future” could point out that Blaenau Gwent hadn’t signed one with some developers, arguing that they shouldn’t have to make a contribution either.

“My concern is if the section 106 is negotiable are we opening ourselves up for big investors in the future to say you didn’t do it for them,” he said.

Planning officer Joanne White said: “This is a small scale development.

“When taking into account the cost of providing sustainable drainage (SuDS applications) and in this particular area the land Investigations that need to be carried out, all bump up the costs unfortunately.

“In this instance you’re talking about 1.3 affordable houses and RSLs (Registered Social Landlords) more often than not don’t want single dwellings on a site.”

Cllr Hodgins said: “I fully understand but even a donation of £200 to the local school would show goodwill.”

Ms Hinton explained: “We are very limited in what section 106 contributions we can request.

“Moving forward with the replacement LDP it’s something we can look at, do we stop asking for significant volumes of money and look at local level things.”

Cllr John Hill said: “We have to trust the officers have done their homework, if they say it’s just not viable we have to accept that on face value.

“We do need some self-build plots there are people out there who like to build their own houses.”

Cllr David Wikshire said: “I welcome it, it will tidy up that area which has been an eyesore for a long time.”

He moved that the committee hold a vote on the application and it was unanimously approved by councillors.