AFTER nearly two years of refusing to reveal how Knutsford's Section 106 commuted sums from developers have been spent, in last week's Knutsford Guardian there were two statements from borough councillors which may shed some light on the subject.
First, Clr Wilson Hamman said that S106 money could be used to purchase equipment for a private organisation.
Before our public money could be used for this purpose, it would have to meet the fairly rigid five necessity tests laid down by the John Major government.
As Clr Hamman is chairman of Knutsford's area planning committee, and so is ultimately responsible for how the S106 sums are spent, perhaps he should now answer the million pound question that the Knutsford Guardian and its readers have been asking:
Where has all our money gone?
Although the borough council have said they appointed a full-time officer to put all the details of these sums since 1990 on a computer data-base, so far they have only told us that in the past five years there have been 11 payments by developers totalling £247,000 (excluding the Royal George). Since this information is on the data-base, Clr Hamman should now tell us exactly where this part, at least, of our money has been spent.
The borough mayor, Clr Paul Whiteley, also shed some light - but not a lot - on the mystery.
"The town gets its benefits from the borough just as the borough gets its benefits from Knutsford," he said.
"We were one of the main supporters of the town's Christmas lights."
LAURIE BURTON
Albert Street
Knutsford
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