We won't miss out again, says council (From Swindon Advertiser)
Get involved! Send photos, video, news & views. Text SWINDON NEWS to 80360 or email us
We won't miss out again, says council
10:00am Thursday 3rd February 2011 in Local By Adam Kula
NEVER again will Swindon residents lose out on development cash, the council has pledged.
As reported in the Adver yesterday, legal complications meant £18.4m in funds from housing developers could never be spent.
It should have been used years ago to upgrade roads and develop facilities around Haydon in north Swindon, where the developers have built thousands of homes.
But the council was forced to renegotiate the deal for £3.8m less, because the original agreement was such a dud.
But it has told the Adver that it won’t happen again.
In a statement, a spokesman said the circumstances of the original deal were “highly unusual, and date back over 10 years.”
“Swindon Council has acted to renegotiate the agreements, and has secured £14m which can be spent, whereas the agreements as they were – which were theoretically valued at £18m – were written in a way which left the council unable to spend anything.”
The deal was a Section 106 agreement, where developers agree to hand over cash in exchange for councils letting work begin.
The statement went on: “We have built up considerable expertise in Section 106 issues and are now one of the leading councils in the country in this regard, which is why we were able to renegotiate the agreement rather than lose it.
“We can say with confidence that a similar situation will not arise as a result of Section 106 contracts we have negotiated.”
North Swindon’s Conservative MP, Justin Tomlinson, left no doubt about who was to blame for the original deal, signed in 2000 when Labour led the council.
“The abject failure of the former Labour council at the conception of the northern expansion has seen us, the local residents, miss out on crucial Section 106 money,” he said.
“It’s essential that we do not miss out on any additional money that’s available and this should be released and spent for the benefit of the local community as quickly and appropriately as possible.
“It’s for local residents to then shape how section 106 money is spent. I’d welcome any measure to empower the local community to make this decision.”
Around £700,000 of the £14.6m which has been renegotiated by the council is soon to be released for spending.
Ward councillors are gathering feedback from the community in Haydon, to learn where the money can be best spent.
Haydon residents with ideas on how to use this first tranche of cash are advised to contact their ward councillors.
Comments(12)
Robfm
says...
10:32am Thu 3 Feb 11
S106 has always been abused by Councils, putting the money into projects that only loosely fit the criteria. Perhaps it's been a case of not shouting to loud, just in case the developers shout back.
who dat?
says...
10:39am Thu 3 Feb 11
Mr Blackwell
says...
10:50am Thu 3 Feb 11
.
No wonder they have so few councillors in the town these days.
.
Well done to the current Council for at least salvaging something from Labour's mess.
Robfm
says...
12:02pm Thu 3 Feb 11
Isn't that what the various committees are for to ensure clarity, which are multi party.
active citizen
says...
4:12pm Thu 3 Feb 11
Under Labour, we had totally unsuitable councillors ,allegedly in charge ,and believing that they were Managers and Developers !
The consequences are plain to see.
One Leader got so carried away by his own importance that he believed his own propaganda-The Labour Group did as well-and applied for the Chief Executive's job.
The Outside Assessor(who saved the Town much grief and expense in getting rid of this character) said that he had no relevant experience ,or appropiate qualifications for such a complicated job, and refused to put him on the shortlist.
The problem is that the survivors of this earlier Labour Disaster may be back in charge if the existing Government gets unpopular.
I dread to think of the damage they will do to Swindon.
itsamess
says...
4:52pm Thu 3 Feb 11
A good example was the compulsory purchase order of farm land i believe belonged to Rushey Platt Farm to enable a School to be built in that area. Years later and after more purchases and use of the Front Garden for building we have the Whichelstowe developement and the houses that were built on the original order area but no School as we heard the Council built a temporary school at £500,000 for just 11 pupils. So now we hear due to the loss of farmlands and less crops there are big shortages of foodstuffs. The relentless building on every available piece of land taking our town up to the borders of almost every village around. We have a town centre like a bomb site and no more than a drinkers paradise with a pathetic sized theatre. We are swamped with small restaurants and takeaways which outnumber shops and i suspect the highest amount of chaity shops and charities. In the lower rankings for education and the 6th highest polluted town in the country.
S106 money is a pure bribe to get planning consent-we must ask if those plans would meet the accepted criteria for those areas to be passed, Do we hear plans for leisure complexes or olympic grade sports facilities or new business arriving--houses but not jobs. How many years ago did we import workers from London and the Council built the houses for the workers to fill the jobs we had. Now they build houses and hotels willy nilly with very little control or thought--bribes win the day-that can never be right.
MrAngry
says...
6:45pm Thu 3 Feb 11
The agreements would have been negotiated by Development Control Officers, Planning Officers and the Borough Solicitor.
Councillor's can only act on the recommendations of these professionals.
Justin Tomlinson knows this, but prefers to blame Labour as opposed to the officers and highly paid Chief Exec and Directors.
I Too
says...
7:01pm Thu 3 Feb 11
Justin Tomlinson knows this, but prefers to blame Labour as opposed to the officers and highly paid Chief Exec and Directors
"
Agreed.
Very poor political mud slinging.
Justin would do better to protect the town from over development.
The current tory administration have done nothing to maintain any form of social / employment balance of the town.
106 monies, and fleecing money from other questionable sources, are obviously pretty much their only objective.
Building more houses, faster than empoyment opportunity increases, is pure madness. it is wrong to leave the blame at the previous government end of.
we want solutions, and remedies, not finger pointing.
Shame on you Mr Tomlinson
Bobby Bee
says...
7:24pm Thu 3 Feb 11
Mr Blackwell
says...
9:39am Fri 4 Feb 11
Agreed.
Very poor political mud slinging.
Because he knows full well his beloved Labour group cost the town £4m... and then goes on to very poorly sling some anti-Tory political mud of his own.
.
I guess we can add 'hypocrite' to the very long list of his flaws.
.
Labour were in office for 13 long, tedious years... that isn't going to be forgotten easily and the blame for much of what happens in this country from now on will be laid squarely at their feet. You can't ruin the country as badly as they did and expect to just walk away blameless the moment you get booted out of office.
I Too
says...
7:56pm Sat 5 Feb 11
DarkAuror says...
10:26am Thu 3 Feb 11