Council leaves £6m sitting in account

MILLIONS OF pounds is sitting in a council’s bank account ready to be spent on improvements across the borough.

The £6m of Section 106 money, paid by developers to Kirklees Council as part of agreements when building housing or commercial sites, remains unspent – despite having been allocated towards projects such as schools and play areas.

There has been frustration in the past as money raised from large-scale housing developments has not been ring-fenced for those specific areas and has often been spent elsewhere in the borough.

The council has also come under fire for failing to collect monies and allowing developers not to pay what they were contracted to deliver.

Hopton Primary School, in Mirfield, is owed more than £87,000 by a housing developer that has breached its legal agreement and the council is taking legal action to recover the cash from Lea Croft Residential.

However, the council said such failures were rare, with just three examples in the last 20 years.

Coun Martyn Bolt suggested making developers pay such money up front and in advance of the start of building work to prevent reneging on contracts. But the head of planning, Mathias Franklin, said Section 106 agreements were “a standard way” of letting development happen and doubted the authority would be able to secure all payments up front.

He added: “It’s the planning authority’s role to bring in the money and monitor obligations and the developments. The council as an organisation is responsible for implementation of that money.”

Coun Bolt said academies, not under local authority control, were missing out and that the situation is “flawed”.