A “catastrophic failure” by Cheshire East Council to collect more than £175,000 owed by a developer has left the authority with less money for education and the environment.
The eight-year debt was revealed in a freedom of information request by Coun Robert Douglas last month.
It showed that developer Morris Homes had failed to pay two section 106 (s106) contributions – money given to the council to support infrastructure – for a housing estate built on Newcastle Road in Arclid in 2014.
Coun Douglas said: “For these sums to still be outstanding eight years or more after the due date can only result in the conclusion that there has been a catastrophic failure in Cheshire East’s debt collection of outstanding S106 money from developers.”
The discovery came as part of a lengthy ongoing investigation by Coun Douglas to get to the bottom of how contributions towards infrastructure from developers were being managed by the council.
As we reported in February last year, he identified £800,000 that had been “permanently lost”, after Cheshire East failed to claim money for the Thistle Way estate off Padgbury Lane in Congleton from developer Stewart Milne before it went bust in January 2024.
A spokesperson for the council said it was working with the administrators to recover the money.
Coun Douglas’ latest request for information from Cheshire East found that Morris Homes had agreed to pay the authority £12,442.30 to be put towards “ecology, meres and mosses”, before starting construction of an 83-dwelling development on the former Arclid Hospital site on Newcastle Road.
Once 50% of the homes were occupied, a further £107,400 was due to be paid for highways contributions, as well as £163,472 towards secondary education at one or both high schools in Sandbach.
However, Cheshire East’s records showed that only the £107,400 towards highways had been paid to the council in March 2018, with the remaining two balances still outstanding, more than eight years later.
Coun Douglas said: “This means that pupils of Sandbach and other local parishes including Brereton Rural ward are suffering because this money was never collected and used.
“For the past eight years, education facilities could have been improved for the benefit of our communities.”
He said he “constantly” heard at Cheshire East meetings that while policy was the responsibility of councillors, operational matters were for officers.
“Why hasn’t anyone got on top of this earlier?” Coun Douglas said.
“It seems to me that almost since the day Cheshire East was formed, officers have miserably failed to collect S106 monies in a timely manner.
“Who is going to help our local communities when it seems all the chief executives have failed in their role of ensuring monies for our benefit are not being collected, which is surely a basic requirement of any organisation?”
Morris Homes and Cheshire East Council were contacted for comment.
Wilmslow-based Morris Homes reported a £10 million loss in its latest accounts.
(Photo: Morris Homes).
