Issue - meetings

Background:

This report presented the Annual Medway Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) 2021, which was set out at Appendix 1 to the report and the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) 2021, set out at Appendix 2. 

The report explained that Medway’s Planning Service had been compiling and publishing annual Monitoring Reports for the last 17 years, following the statutory requirement introduced in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, 2004. The Council had adhered to a timetable for the publication of the AMR on an annual basis each December. This provided a basis for comparison with previous years. The report brought together substantial information about the area for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. This included statistics and indicators on Medway’s population and development trends, and social, economic and environmental aspects of the local area. The AMR also provided an update on the progress of the preparation of the new Medway Local Plan with reference to the Local Development Scheme, which set out the programme for plan preparation and review.

The report also provided details of the IFS, which set out information on developer contributions. The report explained that it was a statutory duty of any authority that received a contribution from development through section 106 planning obligations or a Community Infrastructure Levy to prepare an IFS. Councils were required to publish annually details of receipts, expenditure and proposed spend of developer contributions. This was the second annual IFS, which reported on the financial year 2020/21 and indicated the Council’s priorities for investment in future years to provide for the sustainable growth of Medway.

Reasons:

To comply with the duty to compile and publish a planning monitoring report.

To satisfy the requirement to annually publish an Infrastructure Funding Statement.