That North Swindon Developers Monies In Full (Sort Of)

Something as boring and everyday as the minutes to a meeting can reveal the most extraordinary of things. In Swindon's case, this includes the whereabouts of the Section 106 monies from the developments in North Swindon.

The minutes from the Haydon Wick Parish Council Meeting of Tuesday 16th August confirm a few things ;

- The processes surrounding Section 106 monies are not transparent. From the negotiations, to the final amount, allocation and spending, the criteria employed and the ease of understanding is not that at all.

- The money originally due to be spent on the road to link the southern end of Thamesdown Drive with the Bruce Street Bridge area of Great Western Way has been reallocated to be used on the Great Western Way improvement work.

- The council seem to be keen to allocate money from developments that haven't happened, as point 56.1.2 shows, with regard to the Tadpole Development, keen to move the money out of the development area to somewhere else in Swindon.

- The £250,000 that was allocated for youth provision in Moredon, seems to have been lost.

Swindon Centric Says ; As much of the public space improvement in Swindon town centre is scheduled to take place under the use of Section 106 Monies, it seems like Swindon Borough Council needs to make it's process for negotiation, allocation and spending clearer, much, much clearer.

Which councillor will take up this baton? We're waiting...