An amount of £3,600 was paid by a developer, on 17th January 2006, to the Mid Beds District Council to go towards local cycleway improvements in the town of Biggleswade.
Under the Section 106 agreement:
"in the event that the purposes described in the Third Schedule are not begun or the financial contributions applied to specific projects within five years of the date of receipt of the financial contributions by the Council and the County Council, then the unused money shall be reimbursed to the owner...."
It has been confirmed today that the money was unspent as of the 13th February 2011. Under the agreement the money should be returned to the owner.
Under another S106 agreement an amount of £8,400 was paid to Mid Beds District Council, on 17th May 2006, to go towards Mid Beds cycling and walking strategy.
This was also under a five year agreement and was unspent as of 17th May 2011.
This could be part of a 'Catch 22' type situation where the Council has previously shed staff to try to save costs, but now doesn't have the staff to organise the projects that will spend the money that it does have available...
ReplyDeleteand so we lose out again.