District council to offer £100k contract for legal support on s.106 agreements

Maldon District Council is looking to procure legal support to assist with drafting, negotiating and agreeing section 106 agreements for all large scale and strategic planning applications.

The council said it expected to receive all large scale and strategic applications associated with sites allocated in the council’s emerging Local Development Plan (LDP) within the next three years.

The £100,000 contract is for the delivery of legal support as required for two years.

Maldon said it was currently in receipt of 12 major applications where legal support is required to complete section 106 agreements.

“This number of major applications being considered by the council is expected to continue over the coming months,” it added.

The commission includes the following key tasks:

1.  Drafting site specific section 106 agreements using the council’s model section 106 agreement, and based on the infrastructure requirements and pooling arrangements set out in the LDP and IDP.

2.  Negotiating with the applicants and other parties to seek to maximise the contributions contained with section 106 agreement, and providing advice to the council to assist it in reaching an agreement with applicants. This would include attending two meetings with the applicants and the council as necessary.

3.  Finalising the section 106 agreement on behalf of the council.

The closing date is 29 July 2015. The contract is due to start on 9 August 2015 and end on 8 August 2017.

Last month Communities Secretary Greg Clark directed that Maldon’s Local Development Plan be submitted to him for his approval, after the district council expressed concern about the approach taken by the planning inspector.