Today Chorley County Councillor Alan Cullens (Hoghton with Wheelton) asked the County cabinet member:
Will the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills advise this council how contributions for education are sought and recovered from District Councils through the planning system?
In response CC Jayne Rear, cabinet member for education and skills, revealed that of £37m not received from district councils to support new housing developments with investment in school places, buildings and land, £33m was held back by just three authorities, Preston, £17.7 million, Chorley £6.2 million and South Ribble £9.4 million.
CC Rear was clear that the County Council's response to any planning application should be considered as an objection where these contributions are not made.
So before playing politics with school places, buildings and land in Lancashire, Labour councillors should put their money where their mouth is.
Borough and County Councillor Aidy Riggott later posted:
Since 2017, Lancashire County Council have requested £8.4 million from housing developers to mitigate the impact of all the the additional housing approved by Chorley Council, on educational provision here in Chorley.
And Chorley Council only supported the County Council in securing £2.2 million of that.
This is a shortfall of £6.2 million for educational provision that Chorley Council didn’t support. Money that should have been secured by Chorley Council for the County Council, from the housing developers.
That is an extra £6.2 million of investment that would have gone into providing new school places, new buildings or even a new school.
Well worth remembering next time your local Labour Councillor complains about the lack of suitable school places and investment in new school buildings here in Chorley. Given that they approved all the Planning Applications and new houses and then didn’t secure the requested educational contributions to support them.
The County Council's Cabinet Member for Education also confirmed that if their requests for contributions for education was not supported, it should be treated as a formal objection at the [Borough] Planning Committee.
Which makes me wonder how many housing applications that have been approved, could have instead been rejected?
