Clarity is needed on compensation

Dear Sir,

Responding to Richard Hamilton's letter in last week's Chronicle on S106 funding, I'm surprised at the clarity of the future use of the funds extracted from developers of the Elworth Hall Farm estate in Sandbach.

His letter refl ects what I thought was the strength of these agreements, namely specifi c infrastructure improvements needed because of the effects of the same development.

I wish all these agreements were as straightforward and ring-fenced for relevant local projects.

The transparency ends there as with a fi ve-year deadline for spending these funds, does the money then go into a general pot or heaven forbid is it returned to the developer?

The eventual arrival of community infrastructure levies to replace them might improve the transparency and accountability of these funds, though at the cost of losing the local link.

A New Year's wish is that whatever the mechanism, the public have as much transparency in these "compensation" funds as in the actual development itself.

Yours faithfully,

(DR) PETER HIRST

Middlewich.