So what is a CIL and how can it affect me? Following a fascinating and rewarding weekend spent at the Eden Project in Cornwall, I have been very interested in finding out more about this. The Community Infrastructure Levy was introduced as part of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990, updated as part of the Localism Act of 2011 and is a document of planning obligation which controls the development or use of land and requires a sum of money to be paid to the local authority to allow for local infrastructure. A percentage of any CIL has to be used on local community projects.
As part of the development currently taking place at Dixon’s Wharf, CALA Homes have paid a S106 Levy to the county council and at some stage a small amount of money from that will be released for spending on local projects. At the last Tring Rural Parish Council meeting, I understood that they will soon be issuing an online survey for parishioners to propose what this money, however small it may be, could be spent on. THIS IN SOME SMALL WAY COULD AFFECT US ALL, but you can only influence where it might be spent if you complete the survey.
“For too long, central government has hoarded and concentrated power. Trying to improve people’s lives by imposing decisions, setting targets, and demanding inspections from Whitehall simply doesn’t work. It creates bureaucracy. It leaves no room for adaptation to reflect local circumstances or innovation to deliver services more effectively and at lower cost. And it leaves people feeling “done to” and imposed upon – the very opposite of the sense of participation and involvement on which a healthy democracy thrives.”
Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Minister of State for Decentralisation January 2011
Article by Toby Davidson.
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