Planning Obligation Agreements (FOI)

Request

A

How many Planning Obligation Agreements (POA's) have been registered with the Royal Courts since introduction in 2002?

B

What is the cumulative value of POA's registered with the Royal Courts since introduction?

C

What value of this ring fenced fund has been spent or is remaining?

D

What is the cumulative sum from the ring fenced POA fund that has been returned to the contributors?

Response

A 

This information is exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 because it is already accessible on the States website.

A full list of Planning Obligation Agreements is available to view on www.gov.je at the following link:

Register of Planning Obligation Agreements

B

Whilst some POAs require a financial contribution towards infrastructure improvements, for example £7,500 for a bus shelter, many POAs do not have a defined value.

Some POAs require the developer, at their expense, to widen footpaths or create new lay-bys and cede the land to the Public for free, whilst other POAs control housing tenure or pricing, such as over 55s, first home buyers or social housing, which again has a value to the community but is difficult to price.

We estimate that it will take us in excess of 12.5 working hours to answer this question in full which will require us to determine appropriate material, to locate, retrieve, extract and calculate the information in reference to your request. This part of your request is therefore refused and will not be processed any further.

D

As of 3 March 2017 the value of the advanced POA payments account stands at £1,236,165.99

E

£0 funds have been returned to the contributors.

Exemptions and / or refusals applied to this request:

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Article 23 – Information accessible by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.