Chichester District Council has been collecting financial contributions from development to fund mitigation works on the A27 Chichester Bypass for some years. However, the costs of providing mitigation have increase significantly and new guidance was required to increase the contributions and to broaden the range of developments to which the Planning Obligations would apply.

We have been providing strategic planning advice to the Planning Policy Team at Chichester for several years, including assisting with the preparation of the new Local Plan. The Policy Team Leader appointed Gillings Planning to prepare the SPD as part of this work.

The work was of a sensitive nature given the intended significant increase in contributions. Stakeholder engagement was a vitally important part of the process of getting the details right and ensuring that the guidance was reasonable and evidence-based. Two rounds of public consultation were held to ensure that all issues and concerns could be fully understood and addressed as far as possible. The final SPD was well-received by Members of the Council and was adopted in October 2024.