BRAINTREE Council has been accused of hoarding money meant for Halstead.

Andrew Munday, vice chairman of Halstead Town Council, has complained there is more than £50,000 in council coffers allocated to public spaces in the town which is unspent.

He made the call for the money to be dished out during the latest town council meeting on Monday.

Braintree Council has an “open balance” of £50,329 for improving or creating new open spaces in Halstead.

The town is also due to receive £130,000 in contributions towards improving GP surgeries and a further £1 million has been promised for education, depending on what housing is agreed.

Mr Munday said: “The bit that really does concern me about the finance report is the figure that still isn’t being spent. Despite all of us here at the town council calling for it to be used, they still aren’t spending money that is due to be spent in Halstead.

“We must make sure we keep the pressure on them. It is a huge amount of money and I am worried we may not see the benefit of it.”

Councillor Mick Radley added: “We want the benefit of the money in the town now. We don’t want it anywhere near the expiry date.”

It is understood the town council can apply at any time to spend up to £10,000 a time on projects identified in the open spaces action plan or on land within their control, but most of the open spaces are understood to be under the control of the district council.

A spokesman for Braintree Council said: “We support proposals towards future health, education and open space developments in Halstead.

“We hope the addition of these financial contributions will bring many benefits to the community.”

When developers are granted permission to build new homes they have to make certain payments to improve the infrastructure in the area to cope with the extra demand from the homes.