Leicestershire County Council, the well-known low-interest unsecured loans business, has handed back £900,000 in planning gains to hard-pressed developers. Why? Because these 'gains' must be spent within a certain period of time. It's a long period because some big developments are complicated and take time to come to fruition. There's only one other condition - that the donations are necessary to offset the impact of the development, which is sensible and prudent, otherwise they would just look like backhanders.
So the need existed - was established and proven through the planning inquiry system - it was just that Leicestershire County Council, so busy doing nothing in so many other areas, just didn't get to doing anything about it. So now the need will go on being unmet, for the foreseeable future. Nice work, guys!
