CD180 Environmental advice to the OPDC Planning Directorate

Background and context

OPDC is the local planning authority for 650 hectares of land in west London, which spans three London boroughs: Ealing, Brent, and Hammersmith & Fulham. The area includes the Park Royal Strategic Industrial Location, the Old Oak development area around the new Old Oak Common (High Speed 2 and Elizabeth line) Station, and Wormwood Scrubs Metropolitan Open Land.

OPDC has full planning powers for the area and the Development Management team is responsible for assessing and determining planning applications, negotiating Section 106 agreements and discharging conditions. The varied character of the area means OPDC deals with a wide variety of development proposals including residential development, student accommodation, large-scale purpose-built shared living, hotels, new railway and associated infrastructure, employment and industrial developments and data centres. Many of these proposals are of a strategic scale, include tall buildings, and are Environmental Impact Assessment developments or are supported by a range of technical environmental studies.

As OPDC is a local planning authority and regeneration agency and not a local authority, the full range of expertise required to undertake robust assessments of technical studies and draft environmental sustainability guidance is not available in-house and so external support is required.

The proposal and how it will be delivered

The proposed expenditure will allow for the Planning Directorate to draw on expert environmental and sustainability consultancy support that will feed into planning policy guidance and assessments of planning applications and pre-applications for development. The consultants will ensure that OPDC can secure high standards of environmental performance from schemes brought forward in the OPDC area.

The costs for the support in the production of planning policy guidance are estimated to be £30,000. These costs will be met from the Planning Policy budget within the Planning Directorate budget.

The costs for the assessments of planning applications and pre-applications for development will, where feasible, be recharged to applicants.

Objectives and expected outcomes

The objective is to ensure OPDC’s Planning Directorate is supported by an expert environmental and sustainability consultancy team to assist in:

• ensuring planning guidance is supporting developers in achieving high standards of environmental sustainability
• assessing planning applications and pre-applications to ensure that OPDC’s and the Mayor’s planning policies for high standards of environmental performance are being adhered to.

The outcome would ensure that OPDC is undertaking a robust assessment of planning applications enabling OPDC to make effective decisions on development proposals and ensure that planning applications that are approved deliver high standards of environmental sustainability.

Strategic fit

The environmental consultancy services will help inform a number of existing and future OPDC workstreams including:

• Ensuring the OPDC area contributes towards the Mayor of London’s target for London to be net zero carbon by 2050.
• Delivering policies EU1-EU11 of OPDC’s Local Plan, regarding delivering of open space, biodiversity, water efficiency and quality, minimising flood risk, air quality, minimising noise and vibration, minimising waste and promoting the circular economy, use of sustainable and healthy materials, minimising carbon emissions and overheating, promoting smart technology and appropriately remediating contaminated land.
• Supporting the host boroughs of Brent, Ealing, and Hammersmith and Fulham with their declarations of a climate emergency.
  

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, OPDC must have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to the need to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. 

The commission will support OPDC in delivering environmentally sustainable developments, benefitting those living, working and visiting the OPDC area including those with protected characteristics.

The Supplementary Planning Documents, of which the environmental consultancy would support the drafting, will undergo a Strategic Environmental Assessment Screening to ascertain whether or not a Sustainability Appraisal needs to be undertaken. If this screening process determines that a Sustainability Appraisal is required, a Sustainability Appraisal to assess SPDs’ impacts on sustainability criteria, which would include an assessment of the SPD’s impacts on equalities. If the screening process determines that a Sustainability Appraisal is not required, the reason for this would be that the Local Plan’s Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) is determined to have appropriately tested the proposed guidance within the SPDs. In this circumstance, the IIA for the Local Plan incorporated an Equalities Impact Assessment and this assessment concluded that the policies in the Local Plan will have generally positive impacts on communities, including those with protected characteristics.

Project governance and assurance

Suitably qualified consultants will be procured through a competitive tender process using the TfL’s Professional Services framework for Town Planning and Impact Monitoring including Health and Safety Environment (TPIM&HSE). This will be managed by Transport for London (TfL) in accordance with the OPDC Contracts and Funding Code. Consultants will be shortlisted through selection criteria, including price, quality and social value. OPDC would enter into the contract with the successful bidder. The contract will take the form of a single call-off contract with the successful consultancy.

The contract will be managed by the Head of Development Management with oversight from the Director of Planning. The project will be governed by quarterly meetings and regular communication including monthly look aheads.

Risks and issues

OPDC will need assistance with reviewing application and pre-application material at short notice. There is a risk that the consultant team may not have the capacity to deal with reviewing material for large-scale proposals as such short notice. To mitigate this risk, the tender specification will be clear on the need for a quick turnaround for assessments of pre-applications and applications and during procurement, the bidders will be required to demonstrate that they have sufficient capacity to assess proposals at short notice. OPDC will provide the successful tenderers with schedules of upcoming pre-applications and applications so that the tenderers are sighted on forthcoming assessments and can ensure they have sufficient officer capacity to review proposals. Review meetings will be held with the successful tenders during the contract to ensure that the tenderers are kept abreast of emerging pre-applications and planning applications.

There is a risk that poor quality outputs will adversely affect OPDC’s ability to use the commission as intended. OPDC’s client team will seek suitably qualified consultancy team with the necessary expertise and experience. Project management by OPDC will manage risks associated with quality control.

Other considerations

There are no other considerations that need to be considered in the taking of this decision.

Conflicts of interest

No one involved in the preparation or clearance of this Form, or its substantive proposal, has any conflict of interest

Expenditure of up to £150,000 (£90,000 from 2022/23 and £60,000 from 2023/24) to be initially funded from the Planning Directorate budgets; however, advice provided on pre-applications and planning applications will, where appropriate, be recharged to the applicants, so will be recognised against the Cost Recovery budget.

The SPD work is estimated to come to £30,000 and will be met from the Planning Policy 2022/23 budget (c.f. 1.2 above).

The expenditure of up to £120,000 (£60,000 in 2022/23 and £60,000 in 2023/24) to fund the planning and pre-application assessments will be funded from the Planning Directorate budget. To the greatest extent possible, OPDC will seek to offset the net cost of this work by way of discretionary contributions from the applicants. Where an agreement is made with an applicant to recover the costs of the work undertaken, this will be recognised against the Cost Recovery budget.

Any further expenditure is subject to the Corporation’s decision-making process.

The report above indicates that the decision requested of the Chief Executive falls with the OPDC’s object of securing the regeneration of the Old Oak and Park Royal area and its powers to do anything it considers appropriate for the purpose of its objects or purposes incidental to those purposes, as set out in the Localism Act 2011.

In taking the decisions requested, the Chief Executive must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty, namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010).

The services required should be procured in accordance with the OPDC’s Contracts and Funding Code by relevant procurement officers. Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful consultant and OPDC before the commencement of the services.