City council is urged to speed up its spending

BOSSES ARE 'SITTING ON £42M' WHEN UPGRADES ARE NEEDED

- By DANIEL HOLLAND

COUNCIL bosses “sitting on” tens of millions of pounds in unspent cash have been urged to speed up promised community upgrades across Newcastle.

Newcastle City Council currently holds £42m of unused Section 106 (S106) payments, money secured from developers as part of planning permissions being granted.

The cash can be spent on things like new schools, affordable homes, transport infrastructure, healthcare provision and sports facilities.

But councillors were told last Friday that, while much of the unspent money is committed for specific projects that are yet to come forward, only a relatively small fraction has been used in the last year.

Members of the authority's planning committee said there were parts of Newcastle in “desperate need” of spending and that it was “awful” to see so much money left in civic centre coffers.