WINCHESTER civic chiefs are urging parishes to spend money on infrastructure improvements or risk losing it.

A Cabinet meeting last Wednesday (June 26) reviewed the council’s open space strategy, which is set to change once the council adopts the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which will revamp contributions in 2014.

CIL is a tax on developers towards improving infrastructure such as roads, schools and open spaces. It is similar to section 106 funding, but all CIL funding goes into a single pot for the whole district, rather than towards a specific project.

But Cllr Jan Warwick warned that outstanding s.106 money must be spent by April 2015, one year after CIL is set to begin.

She said: “Parishes have £1.3m to spend by April 2014 and if there are still any remaining funds they will be allocated by the council to sports infrastructure serving a wide area of the district.”

Corporate director Steve Tilbury added developers will likely try and reclaim the money if it is not spent or used for another purpose than intended.

He said: “Developers will be keeping an eagle eye on this and we need to make sure money does not get supplied for the wrong purpose. Developers will be looking carefully at potentially challenging and refunding money that, in their view, is not being used for the reason it was collected.”

Cllr Therese Evans, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, said the council should write to parish council’s to clarify when the money has to be spent.

She said: “It would be very helpful if the parishes had some draft proposals for their particular areas. I think it’s very important they are also aware of the change in rules and to know what the new allocation is.”

But officers confirmed they had been in contact with parishes to make them aware of the situation.

Mr Tilbury added: “Parishes have been fully involved in this revised system and this goes back to 2008. It’s been in the works for five years. I don’t think there can be any legitimate criticism of the city council’s process on this.”