Chapter 4: S106 Report

4.1        The following sets out S106 monies received in 2022/23  

4.2        The following schemes have secured affordable housing dwellings through planning obligations entered in to during the monitoring period:

• 20/10228 - Land at Burgate Acres, Fordingbridge - 14 affordable homes
• 20/11469 - Land at Tinkers Cross, Fordingbridge - 19 affordable homes
• 20/10997 - Land north of Salisbury Road, Calmore (35% dwellings - outline application for up to 280 dwellings)
• 20/11192 - Land south of Milford Road, Pennington (50% dwellings - outline application for up to 110 dwellings)

4.3        Application 20/11469 secured a financial obligation of £262,476.90 tpwards the expansion of Fordingbridge Junior and Infants schools.

4.4        This spend includes £121,257.34 collected for monitoring purposes and £27,843.90 collected as a default sum for maintenance.  These sums have been moved a specific ringfenced maintenance budget account and therefore are being recorded as spend for the purposes of this report.

4.5        Annex 2 of this statement sets out the specific details of which contributions were spent during the financial year 2022/23 and on what purpose.  Below is further information on the projects themselves by infrastructure type.  

4.6        Habitat Mitigation 

4.6.1    Mitigation relating to the New Forest SPA 

4.6.1.1  The New Forest SPA comprises a complex mosaic of habitats overlying mainly nutrient-poor soils over plateau gravels. The major components are the extensive wet and dry heaths with their rich valley mires and associated wet and dry grasslands, the ancient pasture woodlands and enclosure woodlands, the network of clean rivers and streams, and frequent permanent and temporary ponds.  

4.6.1.2  The Footprint Ecology Report "Changing patterns of visitor numbers within the New Forest" (2008) emphasised the need to tailor a package of mitigation measures to the unique nature of the New Forest and its visitor patterns but also points out that, the large area of land, existing expertise in access management, and an infrastructure already geared to cope with large numbers of visitors provide a good starting point. 

4.6.1.3  It concludes that the visitors who are likely to be the easiest to divert from the New Forest are those who do not stay overnight and that potential alternative greenspaces need to be located closer to development areas than the sensitive site to be protected. Sites to attract dog walkers should provide safe off-road parking, a range of routes, and be in locations perceived to maximise enjoyment of the dog. 

4.6.1.4  The Council's mitigation strategy identifies four key strands to providing mitigation namely:  

• Provision of alternative natural recreational greenspace on new developments over 50 net additional dwellings 
• Provision of off-site recreation mitigation projects for new developments of less than 50 dwellings 
• Access and Visitor Management  
• Monitoring  

4.6.2       The use of developer contributions towards the New Forest mitigation strategy  

4.6.2.1  All residential development is required to contribute towards mitigation in the New Forest against each strand.  On the 5 May 2021 a revised mitigation strategy was adopted which amended the financial contributions payable.  These figures were increased on 1 April 2022 in line with inflation using the retail price index.

4.6.2.2  Physical projects are mostly funded through CIL, with monitoring and access management funded through contributions collected via S106 agreements.  Should a development not pay CIL (either by not creating floorspace or having successfully applied for relief) then the infrastructure project element is collected via a S106 contribution. 

4.6.2.3  Over the course of the monitoring period a number of projects entered in to detailed design stages and/or started on site as follows:

• Poulner Lakes Ringwood
• Milford on Sea Walking Routes
• Gang Warily, Fawley
• Depedene, Hythe
• Dark Lane/Saxon Lane, Fawley
• Milford on Sea Pleasure routes

4.6.2.4  Before any project is implemented significant design work needs to be undertaken, which can include survey work and liaison with landowners.   

4.6.3       Access and Visitor Management 

4.6.3.1  To reduce the potentially harmful recreational impacts from visitors to the New Forest, the Council continues to employ a 'People and Wildlife' Ranger role.  The role is hosted by the New Forest National Park Authority and in 2022/23 the cost of this role was £44,250.  The key roles that the post is to implement are: 

• encourage activities to take place outside of the SPA/SAC  
• divert visits from European sites  
• modify behaviour relating to European sites  
• improve understanding of impacts and refinement of mitigation measures.  

4.6.4       Monitoring 

4.6.4.1  The Council has been monitoring the use of areas identified for projects to measure their effectiveness in absorbing recreational activities - essentially walking and dog-walking activities. People counters are positioned at entry points to projects for approximately 2 months. These are placed on or near to a site before work begins on a project and counters are returned to the same places at the same time of year, initially, two years later when the project has been implemented, to give some comparative data. 

4.6.4.2  The Council currently owns 9 counters with 3 additional counters purchased during the monitoring period. An annual service charge is paid each year to facilitate the movement of the counters together with their annual maintenance.   

4.6.5       Mitigation relating to the Solent and Southampton Water SPA 

4.6.5.1  The Solent is internationally important for its wildlife and three Special Protection Areas (SPAs) have been designated by the Government to protect over-wintering birds. The Solent's species are protected under national and international law. 

4.6.5.2  Research undertaken during 2009 - 2013 assessed the impact of recreational activity on wintering birds on the Solent. The research highlighted that planned new housing in South Hampshire would result in a large increase in coastal visits, with a likely impact on the birds unless mitigation measures were put in place. The research showed that mitigation would be required from all new dwellings built within 5.6 kilometres of the boundaries of the SPAs (this is the zone from which 75% of coastal visits originate within). Planning authorities must therefore ensure that necessary mitigation measures are in place before they grant permission for new development.  

4.6.5.3  The Solent Recreation Mitigation Partnership was established to co-ordinate the use of developer contributions from planning authorities to fund strategic mitigation measures. Now known as 'Bird Aware Solent', the partnership comprises the fourteen Solent local planning authorities, Natural England, the RSPB, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, Chichester Harbour Conservancy and Hampshire County Council. Governance is provided by the Joint Committee of the Partnership for South Hampshire (PfSH) with the involvement of the representatives of the non-PfSH authorities. 

4.6.5.4  Based on the research undertaken, the Solent Recreation Mitigation Strategy sets out a package of agreed mitigation measures to ensure that new residential development does not impact on the integrity of the Solent's protected sites. The Strategy enables a developer within the 5.6km catchment area to opt into the scheme and make a financial contribution towards the strategic mitigation of recreational pressures. Developer contributions are pooled from across the fourteen planning authorities to fund a range of strategic habitat mitigation measures. Developers also have the option of providing their own mitigation if they have the ability to do so, but it is usually simpler, quicker and less costly to make a contribution towards the joint Strategy. 

4.6.6       The use of developer contributions towards the Solent Recreational Mitigation Strategy (SRMP)  

4.6.6.1  Developer contributions are paid to the local planning authorities from new residential and visitor accommodation development and it is a decision for each authority which legal mechanism is used to secure the contributions. The contributions are transferred quarterly to the partnership, where they are pooled to implement mitigation measures. 

4.6.6.2  During the monitoring period £59,501.13 was transferred to the Solent partnership. 

4.7            Open Space 

4.7.1      During the monitoring period £812,741.64 was spent on open space contributions to deliver enhanced open space.  £700,728.10 of this was transferred to ongoing projects being delivered by Ringwood Town Council (Long Lane) and New Milton Town Council (Ashley Recreation Ground).

4.8            Transportation 

4.8.1       Hampshire County Council (HCC) are the Highways Authority for the area and they will be largely responsible for implementing highways improvements in this district, some of which will be funded via S106 monies. 

4.8.2       Two LCWIPs are currently being produced in the District and it is intended that much of the currently held transportation money will be used on projects identified in this document. 

4.8.3       The Council have engaged with HCC to deliver a number of local transportation schemes for which money is currently allocated.  It is envisaged these will be progressed during the next monitoring period.