CBC website<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSometimes money is allocated but Biggleswade is very slow\nto spend it. One example would be funding for much needed football pitches,\nwhere residents are travelling to Dunton to access available fields. S106\nfunding is available but the council are struggling to identify the land for\nthem so this project is stalled. I have already been in touch with the Town Clerk\nand several residents who are involved in children\u2019s football and sport in the\ntown to see if they can identify somewhere and take it forward in a timely\nmanner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s clear to everyone I speak to that we have a lack of appropriate\ninfrastructure in Biggleswade to cope with the development that is planned, particularly\nGP surgeries. Going forward it is key that S106 funds are retained within the\ntown and used for its benefit rather than being allowed to trickle away to\nother regions in Central Beds. If I\u2019m elected this will be something I will be\nparticularly keen to pursue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When a town like Biggleswade needs money for infrastructure it often looks to promote new development in order to foot the bill. All new builds are subject to a Section 106 levy (often shortened to S106). These funds are paid by the developer to the council to fund any works required to local infrastructure as a result of the new homes. This can include schools, doctors, playing fields, roads cemetery and allotment improvements, leisure facilities…almost anything in the community that\u2019s a \u2018capital project\u2019 – so new or improved buildings or facilities. WHAT COMES FIRST, THE BUILDING OR THE INFRASTRUCTURE? For most large planning applications there will be a milestone that the developer must reach before they have to hand over the S106 money to the council. Milestones include things like \u2018by the completion of the 100th house\u2019. This is because there are often lengthy delays once an application is approved and sometimes a build won\u2019t happen at all. Even once the money is handed over it might not be spent for quite some time – up to ten years! As a result the infrastructure can lag quite some way behind the building of any new houses. BIGGLESWADE HAS HAD LOTS OF NEW DEVELOPMENT SO WE MUST HAVE LOTS OF S106 MONEY? You might think so but Central Beds don\u2019t guarantee to spend the S106 money in the place where the new development has taken place. Often the planning application will allocate funding for specific things such as schools and there is a legal requirement for this to be completed. As an Independent Councillor I want as much S106 funding retained in Biggleswade as possible and I will challenge applications where the S106 allocation isn\u2019t specified. At the moment when the planning application doesn\u2019t stipulate how the S106 money should be spent it can be allocated elsewhere – sometimes in other places in Central Beds. This is where an Independent councillor can challenge and campaign for funding to be retained locally and spent on the right things. Even when funds are allocated in the planning application often the remit is quite broad so roads and safety could be used in existing adjacent roads to make improvements. SO WHAT S106 FUNDS ARE ALLOCATED TO BIGGLESWADE AT THE MOMENT? A list of S106 funds by Ward is available on the CBC website. Sometimes money is allocated but Biggleswade is very slow to spend it. One example would be funding for much needed football pitches, where residents are travelling to Dunton to access available fields. S106 funding is available but the council are struggling to identify the land for them so this project is stalled. I have already been in touch with the Town Clerk and several residents who are involved in children\u2019s football and sport in the town to see if they can identify somewhere and take it forward in a timely manner. It\u2019s clear to everyone I speak to that we have a lack of appropriate infrastructure in Biggleswade to cope with the development that is planned, particularly GP surgeries. Going forward it is key that S106 funds are retained within the town and used for its benefit rather than being allowed to trickle away to other regions in Central Beds. If I\u2019m elected this will be something I will be particularly keen to pursue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-building-and-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83,"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/83"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drhayleywhitaker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}