Discharging a S106 planning obligation

Your planning permission may have been granted with an accompanying Section 106 legal agreement obligating the signatory parties to undertake certain actions in connection with that planning permission. If there is an accompanying Section 106 agreement then this will appear on the planning register alongside all the other documents attached to the application.

Planning obligations may require certain actions to be undertaken prior to development commencing or at other stages of the development process, and may require details to be submitted for approval by the Council.

It is the responsibility of the applicant, or any subsequent developer, to ensure that the terms of all Section 106 obligations are met in full at the required stage of development.

Section 106 obligations are “discharged” by supplying the required details to the Council. Adequate information to discharge Section 106 obligations should be submitted to and approved in writing by the local planning authority at the required stage of development.

Failure to discharge Section 106 obligations could result in the development being unlawful or enforcement action being taken.

Modifying your application

Occasionally it may be necessary to re-negotiate the terms of a Section 106 agreement. If you need to amend the terms of the Section 106 agreement attached to your planning permission you will need to apply to the Council to do so, using the same application form for discharging any obligation.

Section 106A of the Town and Country Planning Act and the accompanying Planning Practice Guidance (“Planning Obligations” chapter) sets out the terms by which a Section 106 agreement may be modified. Section 106A (3) provides that an application to modify a Section 106 agreement may not be made until a period of 5 years following the date of the Section 106 agreement has passed. The Council may in certain cases be willing to entertain the modification of a Section 106 agreement within the first 5 years where there is good reason to do so.

Costs

A fee is payable for each application made to modify or discharge section 106 obligations.

The fee to agree (“discharge”) matters contained within a section 106 obligation is £145
The fee to modify a section 106 obligation is £293

These fees reflect the corresponding fees to discharge or vary a planning condition, and will increase in tandem with any national changes to these fees.

Apply to modify or discharge a S106 obligation

To apply to modify or discharge a S106 obligation direct to the Council, click the button below to download our application form.

Apply to modify or discharge a S106 obligation

The Planning Portal website does not currently provide the means to apply to modify or discharge a S106 obligation.

After you apply

We aim to respond to your application within eight weeks. You will be sent a decision notice.

The decision will identify the S106 obligations that have been discharged. If we have been unable to discharge a S106 obligation, we will provide you with the reasons why.

In cases where you are seeking to modify a S106 obligation, the formal decision notice will only be issued once the accompanying deed of variation has been completed.

An applicant may appeal a decision not to modify a Section 106 obligation under section 106B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 within six months of our decision.