Home Local News How do you think we should spend Community Infrastructure Levy monies?

How do you think we should spend Community Infrastructure Levy monies?

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Here is your chance to have your say on how West Lancashire Borough Council should spend money raised from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

CIL allows the Council to raise funds from developers who are undertaking new building projects in the Borough. The money the Council collects must be used to pay for a wide range of infrastructure needed to support new development across the Borough. This can include open spaces, parks, play areas, outdoor sports facilities, playing pitches, cycle paths, footpaths, and community facilities.

In recent years the Council has given funding towards helping a wide range of projects, including:

  • The exciting Tawd Valley Park Masterplan proposals
  • Improvements to a stretch of canal towpath between Burscough Wharf and Glovers Swing Bridge near Lathom
  • The renovation and the extension of Mere Sands Wood Visitor Centre, Holmeswood

Government legislation sets out how and where the Council must use the monies.

The majority of the CIL monies collected by the Council must be used on infrastructure projects across the Borough. The Council will save the bulk of the monies up to fund larger, costlier projects in the future, but each year will allocate up to £100,000 to be spent in the next financial year. The Council wants to know your views on how some of this money it has collected should be spent in the 2018/19 financial year.

The Council has shortlisted a number of suitable projects from a much larger list of almost 100 potential schemes. The projects are:

  • £60,000 for improvements to Hunters Hill Country Park, Parbold
  • £40,000 for improvements to Cheshire Lines Path, Downholland
  • £31,000 for improvements to Sluice Lane Public Right Of Way, Rufford

We want to know whether you support CIL funding being spent on these projects. Or you can tell us why you think any other projects listed at www.westlancs.gov.uk/CFP should be considered for funding in 2019/20 or even suggest your own ideas for suitable projects.

A smaller amount of the monies which the Council collects must be used in the area local to where the money was collected from. This ensures CIL money is spent directly where development takes place. Usually, these local monies are given to the parish council who decide how to use them in their local area but some areas, like Ormskirk, do not have a parish councils, so the Council must decide how to spend those CIL monies in that local area. The proposed Ormskirk projects are as follows:

  • £30,000 for improvements at Coronation Park
  • £40,000 for play area improvements at Thompson Avenue
  • £50,000 for traffic signal co-ordination improvements in Ormskirk Town Centre
  • £32,000 for improving a cycle and pedestrian link between the rail station and bus station in Ormskirk Town Centre

Due to national guidance the public consultation regarding those Ormskirk projects is limited to Ormskirk residents and businesses.

Councillor John Hodson, Portfolio Holder for Planning, said: “CIL money can help make some exciting projects a reality and the Council really wants to hear what the public thinks, so please take part in this consultation. Each year the comments we receive help decide what we spend the money on so it’s important that you get involved.”

Comments on the consultations can be sent to the Council between Friday 12 October and Friday 9 November 2018.Further information on the draft CIL Funding Programme can be viewed, between the same dates, by visiting www.westlancs.gov.uk/CFP or dropping in to your local library or Council office to view the documents. If you have any questions phone 01695 585171.

You can submit your views online or by completing a comments form that is available at www.westlancs.gov.uk/CFP or in local libraries and returning it to the Council by email to CIL@westlancs.gov.uk or post to CIL Officer, Development and Regeneration Service, West Lancashire Borough Council, 52 Derby St, Ormskirk, L39 2DF.

All comments received will be considered as we prepare our final recommendations. A final decision on how we spend CIL monies will be made by the Council’s Cabinet in early 2019.

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