Information of Interest

If you would like to submit a question or request for information on a topic, please complete our Tell Us What You Want to Know online form.

The submissions and our responses will be published to this page.

Request submitted February 2011:

Can any voluntary organisation be added to the Parish Council list in order to apply for a grant under Section 106? Or do the Parish Council have to vote for that organisation to be included on the S106 list?

Our response:

S106 monies, also known as developer contributions, can be sought to mitigate the impact of a proposed new development on local infrastructure and services. Contributions are negotiated as part of the planning application process, and are secured by a legal agreement between the developer and the Borough Council.

In accordance with Government advice and the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010, developer contributions may only be sought where they meet all the following criteria:

* They must be necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms
* They must be related to planning and to the development in question
* They must be fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the proposed development, and must be reasonable in all other respects.

They cannot be used to address existing deficiencies in infrastructure or services.

So whilst a voluntary organisation may approach a Parish with a view to being added to the Parish Council list for seeking funding for a project from S106 monies, that project can only be funded from S106 funds if it comprises physical works to mitigate the impact of new development in the area.

For this reason, the allocation of S106 monies to projects is not a 'grant process' in the normal sense.

The mechanism for including a project from a voluntary organisation on the Parish S106 list is a matter for a Parish Council to decide.

You may find the Councils Public Guide on Developer Contributions useful.

Request submitted February 2011:

I would like to know if Councillors submit other expenses for reimbursement. If so is it possible to have a detailed list?

Our response:

All Councillor expenses are published to our website. Details of all expenses are listed in the Annual Payments to Councillors report.

Request submitted December 2010:

Publish public toilet information as open data with locations so that it can be used to create a public toilet map

Our response:

The information you have requested is available on our Schedule of Public Conveniences

Request submitted December 2010:

What is the cost of December 4 Big Society event in terms of,

1) Staff costs broken down by a) preparation before the event, b) on the day and c) after the day
2) Hire of premises
3) Refreshments

How will you evaluate the Big Society initiatives and who will carry it out?

Our response:

The Big Society - Open Space event in December was hosted at no cost to RBWM. All expenditure was met by central government funding. All staff involvement was done on a voluntary basis. Any preparation or follow up work before and after the event was undertaken within normal job role duties.
Progress on Big Society projects is regularly reviewed by the Big Society Panel who publish the minutes of their meetings to the RBWM website. The evaluation of the December event is contained in the initial feedback report.

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