Section 106 – Two weeks today

Two weeks ago today, I blogged about my concerns on how St Mellion was considering spending the Section 106 money provided by St Mellion International Resort.  That Blog entry contained a letter that I’d sent to Christine, The Parish Clerk.  Despite Christine forwarding it to the Parish Councillors, I’ve not had a reply from them yet.  I suspect there are a couple of reasons for this.

  • The Parish Council only meet once per month (and not at all in August)
  • Nobody knows quite what to say

I would speculate that there is a significant difference of opinion within the council as to what recommendations should be made on the 106 spending. As a result, nobody is going to reply to me directly as, quite reasonably, each individual cannot speak for the council as a whole. Consequently, without a meeting, they are unable to agree a unified response. Even with a meeting, I suspect there would be sufficient discord as to make a comprehensive response quite difficult.

On reflection, perhaps I should have asked a more fundamental question that wasn’t subject to individual opinion.  That question being:

By what process did opening the old Golf Club entrance get added to the scope of the Section 106 agreement?

If there is any documentary evidence of that happening, prior to Cormac‘s presentation to the community, I would be quite surprised.  That begs the question, “What gives Cormac permission to unilaterally propose amendments to the Section 106 agreement?”.  Cornwall Council have also stated a modification to it by refusing to provide a pedestrian crossing on the A388, despite that being documented in black and white on the section 106, signed and agreed by themselves!

So are Cornwall Council and Cormac at liberty to modify the terms of the Section 106 agreement in whatever manner they see fit?  It certainly seems that way.  They have demonstrated they can reject elements of it that were in the original scope and also demonstrated they can expand the scope to incorporate other schemes.  Add to this that Cornwall Council hold the 106 pot of money and have already unilaterally spent approximately £20k of it to pay Cormac for a presentation of their 106 amendments!  What an incredible relationship for a Council and a Limited company to share.

Leave a comment