£2million of 'public good' cash stashed away in Camden coffers

ALMOST £2million given by developers for the public good is sitting in Camden Council s coffers. Collected under section 106 of the 1991 Planning and Compensation Act, the money has not yet been allocated. Deals made under the act can involve developers b

ALMOST £2million given by developers for the public good is sitting in Camden Council's coffers.

Collected under section 106 of the 1991 Planning and Compensation Act, the money has not yet been allocated.

Deals made under the act can involve developers building social housing, helping education or improving transport links to offset the effects of their development.

The unspent money includes £120,000 from the developers of the ABC cinema site in Pond Street, Hampstead.

The discovery echoes a similar situation in 2006 when the Labour council was found to have £3million of unspent Section 106 money.

But Camden's equalities and community cevelopment boss, Tory councillor Andrew Marshall, said: "A lot of this is to do with timing. This has been kicked around before and I don't think it's the big issue some people think it is. As a development goes up, the money gets released. The reason why the timescale with the money is quite long is because it is broadly linked with the timescale of the development.

"I'm comfortable we have a good process for making sure the money goes to the places it's supposed to.