Cheshire East Council is facing calls to stop "making excuses" and release funds to install street lights along a Moston road.

The works relate to Albion Lock, a new-build estate, where it was agreed that the developer, Bluefield, would pay to reinstall street lights and make improvements to the footpath along Booth Lane.

Cllr Andy Roscoe, the chair of Moston Parish Council, said the money is held under a section 106 agreement with the council and needs to be signed off by officers.

He told Sandbach Nub News: "The money was initially going to fund something else, but this was renegotiated because of the need for Cheshire East to reinstall the street lighting that they took out just as the development was starting. The footpath is not fit for purpose."

Cllr Roscoe said the issue should have been resolved last month "or a long time before that", but Bluefield is still waiting for the borough council to sign off on the work.

Cllr Kieran Seymour, an independent who sits on Sandbach town council, lives in the Albion Lock estate and has called on the council to allow the work to start.

He said: "It unacceptable that residents are suffering, parents with their young children in prams are at risk on narrow nearly unusable footpaths and everyone's safety is at risk at night with a lack of suitable streetlighting."

"The money is there to do it; it's just Cheshire East Council are using the pandemic as an excuse to do little or nothing".

Cllr Seymour wants to see the work completed on schedule before next autumn and the return of darker evenings.

Bluefield has told Moston Parish Council that they are ready to put the contract for the footpath and street lighting work out to tender but need the funds to be released.

In December, it was reported that Cheshire East Council is sitting on over £33 million of unspent S106 money from developments across the borough.

The money is agreed between council planners and developers to help fund local infrastructure associated with new builds, such as road improvements or school funding.

Sandbach Nub News has requested a comment from Cheshire East Council.