WIRRAL Council is to push ahead with controversial plans for a second children’s play park in Leasowe.

Last week, it seemed likely the authority would have to repay £70,000 to developers after planners failed to use the cash to create the park on land at Reeds Lane.

The money was given to the council 14 years ago under a legal agreement included in the planning consent to build the new estate.

But when the planning committee met last Tuesday, members voted by seven to five in favour of pushing ahead with the park.

Ward councillor Ian Lewis said he is bitterly disappointed.

He had been contacted by the estate's residents who said they no longer wanted the play area as one had been built across the road only last year, at a cost of more than £50,000.

Councillor Lewis told the Globe: “This decision means more than £120,000 will have been spent on two play areas when many communities do not have any at all."

Planning chairman Cllr David Elderton said: “The committee debated this matter at length and heard representations on behalf of residents.

"In the final vote it was decided the development of the play area should proceed as legally required under the terms of the agreement attached to this application when approval was granted some years ago.”

Money for the project was part of a deal set up in 1997 when Taylor Woodrow North West was granted planning permission to build a housing estate at Reeds Lane.

A "106 Agreement" bound developers to build the children's play area for the new estate. To fulfil the bargain, £56,000 was given to the council - where it sat for 14 years gaining interest and raising the sum to more than £70,000.

Councillor Lewis added: "I believe the council now has a moral and legal obligation to submit a formal planning application for the new play area and that residents must be given the opportunity to be consulted.

“It is clear Wirral Council lost track of this application and is not prepared to admit they have made a mistake.

"How many other '106 Agreements' are lying on a shelf in the planning department?”

He has put that precise question to the town hall's legal experts and has been told no comprehensive list of such agreements is available.