WE ARE used to hearing our councils plead poverty. Much of the talk coming from town halls in recent months has been about reining in spending and even cutting services to balance the books.

It comes as a bit of shock, then, to discover there is £16m-plus lying around in council coffers unspent.

There is likely to be even more untapped cash in Merseyside, as neither Wirral nor St Helens could even put a figure on the amount they have stashed away.

The problem lies in how money won from major developers such as Cheshire Oaks and Tesco is being used.

Councils are entitled to draw extra cash from developers through Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act. These agreements often yield happy by-products in the shape of improved transport links or better landscaping.

Developers are forced to stump up extra money to make sure specific public works are carried out and everyone wins – the developer gets a project built and the community gets new trees planted or a new community centre.

But the vast pots of cash these companies are willing to hand over to get their schemes through the planning process are ring-fenced. The cash cannot be used to, say, keep libraries open in Wirral.

This may well frustrate our local authorities which are facing up to drastic budget cuts as the credit crunch bites. But developers of projects such as Cheshire Oaks, who have invested more than £4m, must be even more frustrated that their money has not been put to good use.

Millions of pounds that have been hard won in planning committees should not just be hanging around doing precious little. We have every right to expect our councils to make best use of the money they have to improve the lives of everyone living and working in Merseyside.