BARNSLEY Council has almost £5 million of unspent community cash in its coffers.
The funds - known as section 106 money - is given to the council by developers to mitigate against the impact of developments and provide investment in things such as education, infrastructure and other community projects.
Figures obtained by the Chronicle reveal that as of March 31 this year the council had £4.8 million of unspent section 106 money in the bank - with less than half of that allocated for projects.
Information released under a Freedom of Information request shows £2,183,000 has been identified for projects and £2,629,000 remains unallocated.
From 2010/11 to 2015/16 the council received £5,295,211 from developers with a bumper year in 2015/16 when it received £2.1m in section 106 funding.
During that same six year period the council spent £3,141,225, dishing out more than £1.2m to pay for projects in 2013/14.
It was unable to provide details of the five largest section 106 agreements made during those six years as it does not keep the information in the format requested. The Chronicle was told it would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of 18 hours or £450 under regulations for dealing with Freedom of Information requests to find out.
The council said any suggestion it is ‘sitting on millions’ of unspent community cash is factually incorrect.
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