Planning for Rutland’s Future - Issues and Options Consultation
Issue 12: Ensuring development is supported by essential infrastructure and services
Strategic Objective 12: Ensuring development is supported by essential infrastructure and services and promotes safe movement and more sustainable modes of travel by enhancing greener travel networks for walking, cycling and public transport.
The provision of appropriate infrastructure is an important theme running through national policy. Paragraph 26 requires effective and ongoing joint work with relevant bodies in order that additional infrastructure needs are understood, and paragraph 34 requires Local plans to set out the types of infrastructure provision needed to support the delivery of the Local Plan.
It is important to understand what existing infrastructure is available, and whether it may need to be improved or extended to support new development. The Council will work with infrastructure partners to develop a clear understanding of what infrastructure capacity is available and what will be needed to support new development and use this information to develop an Infrastructure Delivery Plan to sit alongside the Local Plan.
The Local Plan needs to ensure that there is appropriate access to services such as education and healthcare; those utilities, such as power and telecommunications have capacity to supply development and that the physical infrastructure such as open space meets needs arising from the development proposed by the plan.
The Plan will include policies to cover specific types of infrastructure such as water and wastewater, Sustainable Drainage (SUDs), transport and open space but there is also a need to set out what how other infrastructure needs will be addressed.
Rutland is a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charging authority which means that a levy is charged on eligible new developments (housing, retail and some commercial developments). The Council decides how it spends the money it receives from CIL on improving infrastructure. The CIL replaces the use of individually negotiated S106 agreements towards off site, strategic infrastructure.
Development proposals should deliver the necessary on-site infrastructure required to support new development. Such infrastructure will most likely include services such as power, water supply and wastewater disposal, Sustainable Drainage (SUDs), digital services, transport and open space. Strategic infrastructure improvements such as health care, education and community halls will generally be covered by Community Infrastructure Levy. However, it is important to understand that the CIL money on its own will not be sufficient to fund all infrastructure needs identified.
The extent to which an area is currently and can be served well by infrastructure is an important consideration in determining where to locate development and, how much and the type of uses suitable in any location. Current levels and quality of infrastructure (including roads, public transport, utilities and access to community, health, education and leisure facilities) are often regarded as constraints to new development.
The Council will need to consider how the new local plan can best plan for infrastructure needs arising from the growth and development proposed within it – this will be largely driven by the scale and location of development proposed. CIL funding alone is unlikely to be sufficient to provide all infrastructure needs identified and the Council will need to prioritise the expenditure of CIL to deliver critical and essential infrastructure first.
Further evidence will be gathered to identify the likely impacts of growth options and site-specific impacts for infrastructure. Cumulative as well as site-specific impacts must be considered and addressed. Infrastructure needs arising from the planned growth set out in the new Local Plan will be identified in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP).
Alongside the IDP the Council will need to undertake new viability testing of the policies and proposals in the plan ensuring that the cumulative impact of policies, CIL and development costs do not make development unviable.
Question 59 Options for funding Infrastructure improvements
Which option do you consider to be most appropriate to include in the Rutland Local Plan?
Option A: Continue with a dispersed strategy for new development and allocate CIL funding to projects across the County. This will spread the available funding to more places but will spread it more thinly meaning that there may not be sufficient funds to fund everything. It will also make it more difficult to deliver a strategic approach to infrastructure investment.
Option B: focus new development in a single location where the benefits of infrastructure investment can be concentrated. Economies of scale would mean that new/improved education, healthcare and utility infrastructure could be provided as part of a major development concentrating funds in a single location and reducing pressure on existing infrastructure elsewhere in the county.
Option C: focuses new development on areas where there is existing capacity or certainty about the delivery of infrastructure improvements. This would result in an infrastructure led approach to the selection of development sites and settlement hierarchy.
Option D: Develop a priority plan for new /improved infrastructure based on an assessment of need (critical, necessary, and desirable) and timing. This would recognise that CIL funding alone is not sufficient to deliver all infrastructure improvements and will help to focus the investment plans of other agencies and support funding bids to government and other agencies.
Question 60: Prioritisation of Infrastructure
If the Council has to prioritise its spending on infrastructure which of the following requirements should be given priority?
- Affordable Housing
- Schools
- Healthcare
- Open space
- Leisure facilities
- Cultural facilities
- Road improvements
- Public transport
Ensuring new development includes on-site infrastructure and services
The withdrawn Local Plan included policy requirements for each allocated site. These policies set out development principles for the site which included necessary on-site infrastructure which would be delivered by the development in addition to collecting CIL for Strategic infrastructure projects.
Question 61 Ensuring new development includes on-site infrastructure and services
Do you think the new Local Plan should include development requirements for each allocated site?
Question 62
Do you have any additional suggestions or comments about how the Local Plan can ensure that new development is supported by essential infrastructure and services?