A district council was sitting on £13.2million of builder contributions meant to spent on infrastructure at the start of the current financial year.

In order to support planned growth, developers are often asked to make contributions towards new or improved infrastructure such as schools and roads.

West Oxfordshire District Council said the amount of unspent funding "is not unusual".

Chief Executive Giles Hughes said: "Of the £13m of S106 moneys held by WODC, £8.9m are classified as “unallocated”.

WODC has said developer money will help pay for a £1m pitch at West Witney (Image: Oxford Mail) "This means that the projects for which they are earmarked have not yet been finally negotiated and contracted.

"This amount of unspent funding is not unusual or aged.

READ MORE: Planning round-up - applications submitted this week

"The majority of it is already earmarked for specific local projects, which will be spent once the funding stream has been fully collected and the projects finalised.

"Other amounts have only been received very recently."

The council also said officers "acknowledge that more could be done to proactively identify new projects" that could use it.

In September, WODC said money from section 106 funding would be used to help pay for a £1m football pitch at West Witney Sports Ground.

Mr Hughes added: "Moving forwards, we intend to produce an infrastructure spending strategy to provide more clarity over the processes we go through to ensure developer contributions are spent in a timely manner".

It comes after a Freedom of Information request by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) revealed that Oxfordshire County Council was holding the largest amount of unspent Section 106 money among all 206 respondents at £287.5m.

The council has since said that the 2023/24 figure has fallen by £27m and is now £267m. 

But critics said this public money should have been spent.

Liam Walker, who sits on West Oxford District Council's overview and scrutiny committee, and chairs Oxfordshire County Council's Place Overview and Scrutiny committee, said: "I think Oxfordshire residents, particularly those in areas that have seen a huge increase in new houses built, will be furious to discover that the county council is sitting on such a huge amount of money.

"This is cash from development sites to improve our roads, our schools, our local infrastructure and it should be getting spent on this."

He said the committee would "urgently investigate" why it hasn't been.

A spokesman for OCC said: "S106 money is held for specific purposes related to development and so cannot be spent on general council services.

"Funding for individual projects will often be assembled from multiple developments meaning we will always need to hold a level of funding before infrastructure can be delivered.

"This year we will deliver £24m of investment from s106 which is ramping up to more than £60m in 2025/26."