Decision details

Delegated approval has been granted to sign a new contract with Ethos Environmental Planning Ltd (‘EEP’) to provide updated capital costs for provision of off-site open space of each typology included in Policy ID6 of the emerging Local Plan: Development Management Policies DPD (“the LPDMP”), based on standard rates. Following completion of this project, EEP may also be required under the same contract to provide updated costs for maintenance of existing open space of the typologies covered by Policy ID6.
Officers previously commissioned EEP to produce the Council’s Open Space, Sports and Recreation Assessment (OSSRA) which was published in 2017; the updated figures will supersede the costs for open space provision and maintenance published in that document.

The capital costs will inform the Section 106 contributions that the Council’s Planning Contributions SPD will require developers to pay towards offsite provision and/or enhancement of existing open space in cases where a proposed new residential development does not meet the policy’s threshold for on-site open space provision. They will also inform the viability study which is being prepared as evidence base for the LPDMP.
The update of the capital and maintenance costs is considered an extension of the previous commissioned work on the Council's OSSRA.

The Council had considered purchasing the latest edition of Spons External Works and Landscape Price Book to obtain the required information to perform in-house calculation of the costs of open space provision, however this option was discounted on two grounds a) it would have taken longer, and could potentially have resulted in a delay to the agreed committee timetable for considering/approving the draft LPDMP for consultation; and b) there was insufficient technical expertise in-house to determine which of the items that combine to produce the overall cost figures were relevant for each open space typology.