Oriental City

Last week's Willesden and Brent Times carried a story about the Oriental City development that I thought illuminated a common misconception about Section 106 obligations.

Oriental City was a big retail centre in Queensbury. It got planning permission for a major development in 2006. The permission caused controversy as a number of the small traders in the development were moved out at no doubt considerable cost and inconvenience (although compensation was paid). In 2007, the permission was regranted for a still bigger development. Unfortunately, the developers were unable to go ahead for financial reasons. Since the permission was due to expire, they decided to ask for an extension under new powers granted to the Council last year in order to keep struggling developments alive.

This application turned up at the last Brent Planning Committee, prior to the service station site that I was there to speak on. There was a lobby from the Chinese community, including some of the former Oriental City traders, protesting that the development should be refused permission to go ahead. The reason given was that a Chinese Community Centre had been promised under the Section 106 agreement in 2007, but not constructed.

This criticism is wrongheaded in two ways. Firstly, Section 106 monies have to be linked to the development going ahead as a whole. This is because the whole justification for demanding Section 106 from a developer is that they are compensating the wider community for the extra strain being put on the wider community by a development. If there is no development, how can there be extra strain on the local infrastructure? The second, more specific reason, that the objectors were wrongheaded was that the only possibility of the old Section 106 agreement promising a Chinese Community Centre being implemented was if the old planning permission were continued. Without a development, there is no possibility of planning gain of any kind. If permission had been refused, any new application for planning permission would start from a clean slate, and a Chinese Community Centre would not necessarily be asked for.