Council received £176k from developers towards local infrastructure

Rhondda Cynon Taf Council received £176,000 in contributions towards local infrastructure from developers over the last year.

The annual Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) monitoring report was considered by cabinet on Thursday, September 23 and showed developers had paid £176,332.59 in 2020/2021.

CIL income must be split into three parts with 80% to be applied to infrastructure to support growth of the council’s area.

Known as the ‘Strategic CIL’ this is to be spent on projects on the council’s Regulation 123 list and this was worth £24,481.84 in 2020/2021

Then 15% is to be passed to the community or town council where the development contributing CIL is located so the money can be spent on local infrastructure improvements of other measures that support the development of the area.

This was worth £150,320.64 in 2020/2021 and is more than the 80% for strategic income because of the amount being off-set until the cost of the new primary school at the Llanilid development has been met.

And 5% is to be applied towards implementation and ongoing administration with this being worth £1530.12 in 2020/2021.

The amount of strategic income carried forward from 2019/20 was £768,195.08 and so the overall balance of strategic CIL income is £792,676.92.

The cabinet report said there has been no expenditure of Strategic CIL income to date but cabinet agreed in September 2018 to spend £395,000 on Ffynnon Taf Primary School.

The project will include a new build extension with four classrooms and a hall and refurbishments to the current school buildings for school and
community use.

The £395,000 Strategic CIL money was proposed to be spent by end 2020/21 but due to a delay it will be spent by the end of 2021/22.

The council’s Regulation 123 list is made up of transportation and education projects to be funded by strategic CIL money to support the growth of the county borough through the Local Development Plan.

Cabinet agreed to two changes to the current list with the removal of the Mountain Ash Cross Valley Link as it has progressed without the need for CIL funding.

And the second change was to remove the new/additional education provision to serve Station Road, Church Village as this infrastructure project is to be funded by Section 106 education contributions.

The report said CIL receipts were relatively low during 2020/21 as a result of development being curtailed during the Covid pandemic.

But it said the Llanilid development continues to generate CIL “in kind” through the new school as part of the development.

The report added that there should be strategic sites coming forward in the near future in certain areas where developments are not already built or are not already benefiting from planning permission.

There are also a small number of sites that are unlikely to come forward in the near future due to significant concerns over whether they were viable or deliverable and a full review of the operation of CIL is being proposed as part of the forthcoming review of the council’s Local Development Plan.