Cheshire East is aiming to make S106 agreements more flexible after a damning internal audit report revealed millions of pounds had not been allocated to agreed schemes, writes Belinda Ryan.
S106 agreements are contracts between the council and developers to secure financial or other contributions to mitigate the impact of new housing developments.
Such agreements may include money towards education to fund additional school places needed when new homes are built.
The money could also be allocated for highways schemes required to mitigate the impact of a development.
Jane Gowing, interim director of planning, updated the audit and governance committee on the progress made on managing and monitoring arrangements for S106 funding, following September’s highly critical audit.
Ms Gowing said another experienced member of staff had been recruited to help with the workload.
Cllr Edwards said: “My experience in the past, is they’ve [S106 agreements] had to be interpreted very, very rigidly and that has sometimes prevented the positive use of, certainly, qwcommunity benefit funds for the community.
“Can they be worded sufficiently flexibly to use all the funds that are…
