LOCAL people are getting little, or no say, in how funds from developers are spent.

The claim comes from Weymouth Radipole councillor Cllr David Gray who says he has been unable to find any evidence of local involvement in decisions about how Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money is paid out.

The CIL funds, and what are known as Section 106 payments, are collected in a ‘pot’ from contributions from developers to improve facilities in the areas where building projects have taken place. The fund is now administered by Dorset Council and was previously looked after by the former district and borough councils.

The current nest  egg is reported to have more than £2million of unallocated money in it.

Cllr Gray told the Cabinet meeting that a search of the Dorset Council’s internet site failed to discover any evidence of how the decisions were made and how local people could get involved and influence the spending in their areas.

He said there appeared to have been no involvement from local communities  in the 15 applications from the Weymouth and Portland area, many of them for road or pavement upgrades.

“If the money is to benefit the community I don’t see any input from either community leaders, councillors, or from town and parish councils, or from residents.

“I’m wondering, as a process, how do people get involved in deciding how to spend their Community Infrastructure Levy?,” he asked.

Planning brief holder Cllr David Walsh’s reply suggested that most of the decisions were made by officers and then signed off at Cabinet.

He said that 42 bids were made in the recent round for CIL money, although five were rejected.

Cllr Walsh said in the case of town and parish councils, where CIL funds are often channelled to, it was up to them to know what they had and to come forward and suggest how it be spent.

“It is critical local communities know what funding they have,” he said, although he admitted that the council could improve its communications about the funding which is available.

Cllr Gray said that from the 40-plus cases which had recently been proposed not a single town or parish council had added to the requests.

“It’s not been successful so far - so I’m looking for you to commit to some action to say how does the town or parish council find out. They don’t know what they don’t know and I can’t find anything on the website which encourages them to do that,” he said.

Report author, officer Andrew Galpin, said that priorities for spending were set by an officer group and said that Portfolio holders had been involved in coming up with projects and/or signing them off.

He said there would be greater transparency about what was available in the future.

Said Cllr Gray : “It is called a Community Infrastructure Levy. There has been no community involvement.”

Dorchester councillor Stella Jones said she had discovered spending, on a weatherproof cover at the town’s tip, within her ward, after the decision had been made, and as ward councillor had not been consulted and neither had the town council.

Fellow Dorchester councillor David Taylor said he had also been in similar situations where he had not been consulted about projects in his area: “Could we have more communication from officers and the council so we can understand what is going on,” he said.