Issue - meetings

Members considered the Fees and Charges to be levied on services provided by the Council as used as the basis for income targets in the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2019/2020 – 2022/2023.

The Executive Director, Finance and Resources informed Members that a new process had been followed for the review of income to be realised from 1st April 2019/2020.  This had included an assessment of each fee in order to identify how it met the Council’s Strategic Purposes and the level of increase that was proposed.  Therefore the levels of increase were based on a robust estimate of the impact of cost increases and demand within services.  Retail Price Index (RPI) at 3% had been used where a general inflationary increase was proposed.

Fees were to be considered using the following criteria:

·         Service to be subsided by the Council

·         Service to break even

·         Service to make a surplus to offset other relevant costs

As agreed by Members the recommendations from the Finance and Budget Working Group, as detailed on pages 3 and 4 of the Supplementary Agenda pack were considered.

Following the presentation of the report, Members briefly discussed the following:

·         That there was no increase in the brown bin garden waste charge.

·         Hire Products (page 45 of the main agenda pack) it was agreed that more detailed information should be included in order to highlight that the hire of a smoke alarm per week; was for a hard wired, serviced smoke alarm.

·         Charges for mechanically sweeping a private road/car park – both mini and HGV hourly charges.

RESOLVED

a)    that the recommendations from the Finance and Budget Working Group as agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Board, as detailed on pages 3 and 4 of the Supplementary Agenda pack, be included in the Fees and Charges update report, to be presented to Council on 23rd January 2019; and

b)    that the information on Hire Products, as detailed in the preamble above, also be reported to Council on 23rd January 2019.

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RECOMMENDED:

a)    that Council approve all fees and charges that are included within Appendix 1 of the report; 

b)    that Council approve the recommendations from the Finance and Budget Working Group, as detailed at Appendix 1 to the minutes, and 

c)    that additional information on Hire Products be included within future fees and charges reports.