A COUNCILLOR from Isleworth has vowed to investigate the mystery over what happened to the interest on monies stashed away for years, supposedly for use on Isleworth's Worton Estate.

ICG councillor, Fred Muston, claims the money, which was made available for estate improvements from the Maltings and Worton Green developments in the early 1990s, has been withheld for many years and only now is to be added to Section 106 payments attached to the Worton Green development.

But Cllr Muston remains extremely concerned: I came across this issue through the inquiry on the Worton estate which said that the green shouldn't be developed on.

£280,000 was designated to benefit the Isleworth community from the development on Worton Green and there were also two other amounts totalling £66,000 which have been around for years. I want to know what happened to this money and also how and when the monies have been used.''

He continued: When I asked for this information - how and when the money had been used, the request was never minuted. I found that extremely suspicious.

There's been a lot of secrecy about this. When Section 106 monies came up at an area meeting, I asked Michael Jordan, Borough Planning Officer what and when they had been spent. He only told me that we [Hounslow] get more information from the council than any other council he's worked with. But he never answered the question.''

Cllr Muston also wants to establish what has happened to the interest on this money.

He added: I believe that if interest had been paid on them, they could be worth almost double. But I am worried that if interest hasn't been paid on them the value of the original money will have been reduced.''

In his search for the truth about these monies, Cllr Muston raised the matter at a recent meeting of the Isleworth & Brentford Area Monitoring Committee. He also intends to ask the Council's auditors KPMG to probe into these issues.

The next meeting of the Isleworth & Brentford Area Monitoring Committee will be drawing up a wish list' of local works on which the Section 106 monies could be spent.

The rule is that any project on which money is spent must relate in some way to the development in question, although at times this can be interpreted more loosely than at others. Please send your ideas to the Isleworth Community Group at icg@isleworth.org or icg@brentford.org.