West Devon borough councillors have voted to work closely with the towns and villages they represent to make sure that every penny of over £1 millon of developer cash given under Section 106 agreements gets spent.

There is currently £1.091 million sitting in West Devon Borough Council’s bank account for community projects, members of the council’s hub committee heard earlier this month.

While all bar £123,000 has been allocated for particular schemes, there are time limits on many Section 106 agreements — and councillors were urged to make sure that the projects get completed in time.

Cllr Chris Edmonds, introducing the report, said: ‘There is a risk of contributions not being spent in accordance with Section 106 agreements and some agreements have clawback clauses allowing developers to be repaid the money if it isn’t spent in a particular timeframe. The careful monitoring of the projects set out in this report and active engagement of ward members with the towns and parish councils will prevent this from happening.’

Councillors heard that many of the Section 106 agreements have time limits, all of which are set out in the agreements. While some, like £11,000 set aside for town centre improvements in Tavistock, do not have a time limit, for others it is five or ten years, and some are edging close to their expiry date. For instance, no progress has been made on providing playing fields at the Batheway Fields housing estate in North Tawton, with nearly £60,000, handed over in 2013 on condition of being spent by 2023, still languishing in the borough council bank account.

Cllr Ric Cheadle said: ‘One of the items on the spreadsheet which is flashing red, if I can put it that way, where no action has started and it has a five-year time fuse and the clock started in 2018, so it is not that far away, is the play equipment in Bannawell Street, so I will make sure I bring that to the attention of the mayor of Bannawell Street [borough councillor Jeff Moody]. I’m sure he is aware of it, but I think that would be helpful.’

Borough council director of finance Lisa Buckle said that the plans to revamp the Bannawell Street play area in Tavistock — with almost £50,000 in planning gain from the Butcher Park Hill housing development — were in hand.

‘We have been in touch with the town council as it is owned by Tavistock Town Council and there is two years to use the funds so we will make sure we make that money available. We have been having quite regular meetings with Tavistock ward members and also in Okehampton, where the deadline for the community funds was last Friday for the applications, so we will be looking to speed up and spend that money.’

Cllr Kevin Ball, who represents the Okehampton North ward, asked how members would get progress reports on projects in their wards. Mrs Buckle agreed these could be provided as part of the quarterly reviews on council capital spending.

Of the Section 106 money in WDBC’s bank account currently, £600,000 has been earmarked for high quality temporary accommodation for homeless people, to replace the rundown facility on Spring Hill in Tavistock.Other funds are allocated for sports clubs within West Devon communities, with Section 106 money to be used to buy more land for Tavistock Rugby Club and for new pavilions at both Tavistock Cricket Club and Tavistock Hockey Club.

Ric Cheadle said he thought the Section 106 money was a good news story which it was worth the council making some noise over. ‘As a ward member with a great deal of development in my ward [Buckland Monachorum], the public reaction to that development is not always favourable. In fact in some cases it is unfavourable, and I would like to urge the council to make the most of what is a good news story, with this money being spent on sports clubs, play equipment and all the other good things the Section 106 money can help us with. I would urge the council as much as possible to promote it to give the residents a fuzzy feeling that the developers are in fact making a contribution to the community. I think that is a really important message that we need to get out.’