Good news and bad news. The bad news is that Colchester planning requires a “Section 106” to be agreed to be paid for the planning application to proceed. This is a levy that all councils require for payment, but most refer to it as the Community and Infrastructure Levy (CIL) which has a specific and agreed exemption process for single-development self-builders. Colchester, however, like a few other councils, has not adopted this levy and still uses the older version which does not have an exemption process. So unfortunately, it seems we do not have a choice but to pay the levy which is over £13,000.
The good news, however, is that the fact they are requesting this agreement now is a good indication that they are progressing us towards a positive decision. Fingers crossed 🤞