Planning application 144526 - Find a freedom of information request

I hope you can help me with some answers from your response to planning application 144526.

In your response you stated that there were insufficient places at secondary/6th form school and that S106 funding would be required to cover this, but there were sufficient spaces at primary school and S106 funding was not required.

If I use the CLLP 2022 data (for Welton and Dunholme) as at the 31st March 2021 there were a further 541 houses plus 50 from Hawks Road development that was approved recently that have permission to be built a total of 591 new house.

Above this there are a further 471 houses being allocated in the latest plan.

This planning application being 109 of the 471 new houses. If I use your formula for the number of pupils (used in the planning application) of 21 primary, 20 secondary and 3 sixth form places for 109 houses, then extra places required to meet the CLLP requirements is Places required. Places required from Total places with permission proposed sites.

Primary. 114. 91. 215

Secondary. 108. 87. 194

6th form. 16. 13. 29

Total. 238. 191. 438

This data raises a number of questions.

1. I have looked around and there are 71 spaces at St Mary's in Welton. Other than that all the local primary schools are showing as full. This means that there are insufficient places for children from houses where permission is already granted, let alone for the new proposed developments. To complicate this there are additional spaces required form nearby villages where development is also proposed. Can you advise what the plans are for primary children to accommodate the 114 places required from existing approved housing developments and the further 91 places from the new proposed developments?

2. Given the data, why is S106 money not required for primary schools?

3. For the secondary and 6th form pupils. As there are no spare places at William Farr (the only local secondary and 6th form school) can you advise what the plans are to accommodate the 108 + 16 places required from existing approved housing developments and the further 87 + 13 places from the new proposed developments?

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

1. When assessing a planning application from a Lincolnshire district council, we look at the data on the application form in relation to the dwelling make up of that development.

We use a formula to calculate how many children are likely to be produced by the development, we then look at the planning area of the development and we investigate the pupil projected numbers to see if that planning area could cope with additional children that would be mitigated by the development.

Figures are based on a future projection of approximately 3 years as developments do not happen immediately.

The planning area of Welton primary (which consists of Welton St Marys/ Dunholme/Hackthorn primary schools) has 76 spaces available in our 2024/2025 projection until being 95% full. S106 education asks are only requested where schools are over 95% capacity, which would therefore mean that development ref 144526 would create primary children that could be placed in a local primary school if the development went ahead.

It is not clear from your email where the additional pupils that you suggest will require spaces are within the S106 education system. This is because developments across the Central Lincolnshire area will be at different states of their planning processes and due to deliver on differing timescales.

2.The Local Authority have a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient accessible school places and we continue to monitor the situation. We would look to add capacity to schools if needed using S106 funding or alternative funding sources if S106 is not available.

There is not currently a strong case to expand any schools at the moment in this area, other than the project taking place with William Farr, but this will be kept under review as new housing developments come forward in the local area, as they are for the whole of the county. As mentioned in answer to question 1 our formula is used to ascertain whether an ask for a primary education needs to be made.

S106 agreements are put in place to make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms that would otherwise not be acceptable. When responding to planning applications we decide on the individual applications at the time that they come into our possession, and we comment using the methods mentioned above to assess the situation. Applications come along and may never go any further than the planning application stage and some go to the full development stage. Therefore, we cannot hold places aside from the projections for a development that may never go ahead. Lincolnshire only make S106 education asks when a development would cause the local schools within a planning area to be over 95% capacity and we can meet the 3 elements that must be met in accordance with current regulations i.e. necessary, directly related, fair and reasonable if those tests are met this would therefore mean school places need to be mitigated. In the instance for application 144526, there is current capacity within the planning area for the pupils whom are expected to come from this development– hence a 0 ask.

3. Lincolnshire County Council only make a S106 education asks for Primary Education. Secondary and Sixth form education mitigation within Central Lincolnshire has been covered by the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) since 2018 and is dealt with outside of Lincolnshire County Council by the district councils West Lindsey, North Kesteven and City of Lincoln. We are able to spend s106 on the secondary school from pre-CIL s106 agreements. In relation to any additional secondary and 6th form pupils in the area the Local Authority and the school would look at how best to accommodate any additional children from developments when those needs arise and would fund any additional accommodation needed accordingly if S106 or CIL is not available and if there is a demonstrable forecast local demand for more places than are currently available. We are currently working with the school on a project to increase the capacity and it would be possible to expand further in the future if required.