A councillor in Peasedown St John is calling on the Council to waiver a £14,000 ‘administration’ fee they say is due, following a recently completed housing development in the village.
After much public consultation and liaison with user groups, Peasedown St John Parish Council is overseeing the spending of £210,000 provided by David Wilson Homes in S106 (contribution) money from the Wellow Lane housing development.
This money shall be spent on a new skate park on the Recreation Field (£90,000) and a new play park on Beacon Field (£120,000).
Cllr Nathan Hartley said: “I am really looking forward to seeing this money spent. It’s long overdue following B&NES Council cuts to local services and less money being spent in the village.
“Local people have been asking me for investment of this kind for many years.
“Unfortunately though, the total sum of funding for parks and open spaces has been reduced by £14,023 because BANES Council believes this is money they are ‘due’ in administration costs.”
Nathan believes this is a high sum of money for minimal work carried out by the authority, which itself has a budget of more than £250 million per year.
He added: “This is a huge sum of money for a very small amount of work carried out by the council. All of the project work has been, or will be, carried out by the parish council.
“They are also expected to fund design and consultancy costs from the £210,000 total – meaning less can be spent on physical infrastructure improvements.
“With less money coming to Peasedown, and the council cutting spending on services in the village, will BANES Council forego this fee to compensate for the lack of work done to warrant such money?”
The authority waivered the fee for the refurbishment of the changing rooms on the Recreation Field just a few years ago – paid for by S106 funding from the Sunnyside Housing development.
Cllr Hartley has tabled a question at the April meeting of the Council Cabinet, calling on the authority not to take the £14,000 fee, and allow it to be spent in Peasedown St John.
A Council spokesman said that the Council must pay attention to its own policies, and that the Green Space & Play Services policy, from which the development had various obligations, was agreed back in 2009.