Merseyside and Cheshire councils reveal they have £16m unspent in bank accounts - but Wirral can’t even work out how much they have stashed

Jan 7 2009 by Sue McCann, Birkenhead News

CASH-STRAPPED local authorities across Merseyside and Cheshire have more than £16m stashed away unused in bank accounts – despite it being handed over for use with major schemes in their areas.

The councils - including Wirral - have been forced to reveal details of their unspent funds following a Freedom of Information request.

And the figure could be much higher, as neither Wirral nor St Helens councils were even able to work out how much cash they actually currently hold.

The money has been handed to the authorities by developers to carry out publics works as part of conditions for approving planning permission for the schemes.

It is often intended to pay for new road lay-outs or traffic lights connected with an increase in cars due to the new developments.

One of the largest single sums handed over, in what are known as Section 106 agreements, was by the developers of the Cheshire Oaks retail development, totalling £4.25m.

Of that, £1.8m still remained unspent when the authority responded to the request for details.

Ellesmere Port and Neston Council leader Justin Madders said time was running out for the existing council to use the money, before the reorganisation of local government and the take-over by Cheshire West and Chester Council.

In total, Ellesmere Port and Neston Council has almost £3m of unspent Section 106 cash, although Sefton comes out with the highest amount of unspent cash locally with £4,357,956.

Chester has £3,191,309 of money still banked, and Halton has £2,054,934.

Wirral Council, which has dealt with almost 8,000 planning applications in the last four years, had completed more than 30 S106 agreements with developers in this period.

In Ellesmere Port, which is due to become part of the newly-created Cheshire West and Cheshire Council from April, £1.8m of the money handed over by the Cheshire Oaks developers remains unspent, making up the largest single block of S106 cash held by the local authority.