Cheshire East holds over £14m in Section 106 account

Cheshire East Council (CEC) currently holds £14,322,950 in their S106 account and at the end of the 2014-15 financial year the balance was £13,202,847 which earnt £19,971 interest.

As the result of a Freedom of Information Request, wilmslow.co.uk can reveal that the Council has over £1m set aside in the bank from agreements relating to Wilmslow and nearly half a million pounds from agreements relating to Handforth.

The current balance in their S106 account shows £1,167,534 allocated for Wilmslow and £469,590 for Handforth which represents a substantial increase for Wilmslow but a decrease for Handforth since we last obtained figures. In October 2013 the amounts were £546,138 and £523,836 respectively.

Section 106 agreements, also known as Planning Obligations, are legal agreements with the Council under Section 106 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990. These are legally binding agreements between the Council, the developer and any other parties with an interest in the site to be developed and often include a financial contribution.

The purpose of Section 106 agreements is to regulate the future development of the land, compensate the local community for any impact caused by a development and help shape the new development - for example, to make sure a certain number of houses are affordable homes.

Amongst the payments held for Wilmslow are:

£460,258 for the Waters Development on Altrincham Road - to be used for recreation and outdoor sports plus towards footpath work between the site and Mobberley Road including the provision of a Toucan crossing. £259,315 is allocated for the provision of open space facilities at Browns Lane and other local recreational projects
£78,000 for the development of Oaklands School - to be used for open space and enhancements at the local play and amenity facility at Browns Lane.
£82,499 for the development of Oaken Court on Nightingale Close - towards off site play provision and education provision within the locality.
£51,074 for the development at Kings Close - towards the implementation of the council's park strategy at the Carrs and other town centre sites.
£249,162 for the development off Adlington Road - towards secondary education within the vicinity, for the TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) to reduce the speed limit along Adlington Road and towards habitat creation to offset the loss of biodiversity.
£19,335 for the former RAF camp site off Dean Row Road - for the onsite provision of open space.
£24,420 for the former police station on Green Lane - for the implementation of the Council's parks strategy at The Carrs.
£65,907 for erection of apartment on land adjacent to Twinnies Road - for the implementation of the Council's parks strategy at Lacey Green.
£63,337 for the erection of 24 dwellings to the rear of Ace Works - for the provision of open space and sports facilities within the Macclesfield Borough.

Money set aside for Handforth includes:

£28,734 for the Picton Drive, Howty Close Site & Summerfields sites - for sporting/recreational facilities and play areas.
£13,462 for the Woodlands Chase land at Handforth Road - to be used for the maintenance of POS.
£28,191 for the development of land at Honford Court, to pay for the improvement and enhancement of the facilities within Meriton Road Park and a TRO.
£399,202 for the development of retirement flats at 195-199 Wilmslow Road for the provision of affordable housing and POS to be sent on improvements anywhere in the borough.

Of the £14,322,950 currently held in the S106 account, £11,289,291 is identified as non-time limited funds and £3,033,659 is identified as funds time limited for expenditure.

Of the £1,167,534 allocated to Wilmslow, £168,823 has a time limit on the funds and in Handforth £441,399 of the £469,590 has a time limit.

Income from S106 funds has increased from £4,677,437 in the financial year 2011/12 to £13,202,847 in 2014/15, whilst expenditure also increased during that period from £560,905 in 2011/12 to £2,511,620 in 2014/15.

In the past four years the interest received on the S106 fund is £46,565, we are currently waiting for confirmation from Cheshire East Council as to what happens to the interest and whether it is kept by CEC or added on to the individual 106 payment.

Tags:: S106 Money

Comments

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DELETED ACCOUNT

Wednesday 23^rd September 2015 at 4:03 pm

Leaving aside the Adlington road money which they can't be expected to have spent yet - this is an awful lot of money unspent and simply held, despite the fact that most of it was allocated for specific things. The recreation space at Browns Lane has already received £337,000 (Waters and Oaklands) and as far as I can see nothing on that recreation space has ever changed. Is it all being retained so that when Cheshire is resurrected it can simply be transferred?

Wednesday 23^rd September 2015 at 4:14 pm

Having just looked at the S106 for Adlington Road I note that a further £352,500 was put aside for the public open space next to it - in other words Brown's Lane. That recreation space gets a lot of money thrown at it with no visible changes ever taking place.

John Rowland

Thursday 24^th September 2015 at 11:00 am

Fantastic reporting, well done Lisa on such an accurately detailed article. From my minion status experience in developing sites and paying 106 charges unless residents keep on the back of the LA there is very little drive to actually spend the money accrued, quite surprising but none the less common in many areas, not just ours.
I personally believe that LA's have no desire, or arguably the funds, to take on the long term maintenance of 106 funded play areas/recreation facilities, hence is why the public see very little progress. You honestly wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get a LA to take over the maintenance of a modern well equipped, well built playground facility!, you'd think you were trying to hand over a phial of ebola !!!!