Ledbury to benefit from £900,000 in Section 106 funds

The money will come from developers that have signed Section 106 agreements with Herefordshire Council as part of the planning process.

Section 106 agreements are often drafted when a development is considered to have a significant impact on the local area.

They are used to ensure the inclusion of affordable housing in new estates, or to fund the creation of new infrastructure such as new roads, schools, shops or public open space.

Ledbury mayor Phillip Howells

Mayor Phillip Howells, in a report put before Ledbury Town Council in December, said numerous meetings had been held with Herefordshire Council staff over the non-use of a “significant amount” of unused section 106 monies.

“The sums involved are over £7 million, which has accumulated over the years with no formal project plan to use them – as has been complained about by all the market towns for several years,” said Cllr Howells.

“The good news is that the council now has a dedicated team redressing this situation, which has taken something like a year to sort out.”

He said there is now a list of projects for each of Herefordshire’s market towns - Ledbury, Leominster, Ross, Bromyard and Kington - but they can’t all be done in one go.

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“Each council now has a spreadsheet with anticipated project areas on which money will be spent,” he said.

“Something like £900,000 has been identified for Ledbury project spend on education, open spaces/play areas, sports, public realm and transport/highways, with details of individual projects still to be confirmed.

“One thing we discovered was that the proposed new football facilities off the Little Marcle Road, which S106 money is expected to part fund, was not on the project list.

“That is being rectified. It is work in progress but very reassuring [that] we will see the use of the money to benefit Ledbury over the next two to three years.”