Under S106 of the amended Town and Country Planning Act 1990, contributions can be sought from developers towards the costs of providing community and social infrastructure, the need for which has arisen as a result of a new development taking place. This is commonly known as Section 106 (or S106) money.
Typically the contributions are made to fund public open spaces, highways infrastructure, primary and secondary education, public transport (generally new bus stops) and car parks.
The Section 106 contributions related to highways, education and public transport get paid to the county council and the other payments go to the district council.
Over the past seven years North Devon District Council (NDDC) has received more than £500,000 from developers in South Molton and spent just £97,000. This leaves more than £400,000 in the kitty.
This doesn’t include contributions which will come from the Gullacombe, North Road and Nadder Lane developments.
The Gullacombe development alone should result in additional payments of about £380,000 to NDDC.
The figure for the North Road development has not yet been finalised as it will be dependant on how many houses eventually get built, and many of those are provided as social housing.
The Nadder Lane S106 agreement is currently being negotiated so no figures are available yet, although Devon County council has requested a contribution of £629,040 for primary school places!
Returning to the NDDC S106 money: over the same period for the whole of North Devon the district council has received £3,327,658, spent £1,804,690 and repaid £7,562 – leaving a balance of £1,515,406.
NDDC seems to be better at spending money outside South Molton than it does at spending money in South Molton – 15.3% of NDDC’s S106 came from developments in South Molton whereas only 5.4% of the S106 money has been spent in South Molton.
Are NDDC saving all the money for the proposed Sports Hub?
They’ve got to be careful because if the money isn’t spent within a certain period of time it has to be repaid to the developers!