Decision details

Decision Maker: Assistant Director (Building & Public Realm)

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

BT and Openreach are currently upgrading their broadband infrastructure to meet the government’s target of full fibre broadband coverage across all of the UK by 2033. As such TDC have received a request to grant a Wayleave to install equipment on its land and it is anticipated that more will be forthcoming over the course of this project.
It is considered that use of the standard fees negotiated by the NFU and CLA (Appendix A) will demonstrate best value without having to pay for costly valuations, which in many cases are likely to cost more than the value of the Wayleave agreements. It will also speed up the process time supporting BT/Openreach to meet the governments targets.
Granting of these Wayleave agreements will benefit the District enabling better coverage across Tendring for its residents and providing more attractive broadband availability for Tendring’s businesses and those that may be looking to start up or move to the area.
The Property Dealing Procedure as set out in the Constitution states that “in any ransom or other circumstances where the seeking of two valuations would be impractical in the opinion of the Assistant Director (Building

Decision:

For Wayleave agreements requested from BT or Openreach in respect of fixed line broadband cables, equipment and infrastructure to be placed on TDC land, that does not directly benefit TDC owned property, to adopt the national valuation fees as negotiated by the NFU and CLA, details of these attached as Appendix A.

Alternative options considered:

To obtain market valuation reports for each request – in many cases the cost of the valuation report may exceed the value of the Wayleave being granted. This would not be a good use of public funds and BT/Openreach would not be willing to pay for them from the budget they have to deliver the project.

Publication date: 19/01/2021

Date of decision: 19/01/2021