Section 106 funding for new skate park

It was good to hear on Monday night at the Bildeston Parish Council meeting that the Parish Council has managed to use Section  106 moneys ,along with other funding, to provide a skate park for young people in the village.  It seems that the facility will be situated on the recreation ground that is a  little way away from homes and so will not prove a nuisance to residents. Long standing readers of this website may remember that Acton  Parish Council’s plans for an all-weather sports pitch were frustrated some years ago by the failure to find an appropriate site that was sufficiently far from people’s homes.

Spending Section 106 money for recreational facilities and open space often proves difficult for communities.

This sort of funding is provided by all developers of new homes.  It goes towards a number of purposes, including a sum to compensate the community for the loss of open space and recreational amenity.  Babergh holds pots of money of varying sizes for this purpose on behalf of many parishes in the District.

However, the rules on how the money can be spent are quite restrictive.  The money cannot, for example, be used for the refurbishment of old equipment or tidying up existing playing fields.  It must be spent on something new. If no use for the funds can be found within a certain period the money must be returned to the developer.  Sadly, working up a scheme that falls within the regulations can often tax the ingenuity of the community, and sometimes proves impossible.

Section 106 arrangements will be changing with the introduction of the Community Infrastructure Levy which falls on a wider range of developments.  Babergh is, I understand, working on the introduction of a CIL scheme, after which time Section 106 charges on new development is likely to be more restricted.