Issue - meetings

The Committee gave consideration to a report detailing the proposed fees and charges for 2023/24, including parking charges for Christmas events in Gainsborough and Market Rasen. The Chairman highlighted a number of appendices relating to the item that contained commercially sensitive information and reminded Members that should they wish to discuss those appendices, the Committee would need to enter closed session.

Note:              Councillor J. Oliver left the Chamber at 8:12pm

The Business Support Team Leader explained that the report detailed the proposed fees and charges to be implemented from 1 April 2023, for services within this committee, contained within the report at Appendices A and B. Additionally, the appendices which provided service specific detail around performance and demand were included within the report at appendices 1 to 16.

Consideration had been given to total cost recovery, benchmarking data, and team manager knowledge of the market when proposing fees. The budget implications included in the report reflected both the impact of proposed amendments to fees, and the forecast demand.

Members heard it was proposed to apply the inflation rate of 6% (which was less than half the level of current inflation). This reflected the impact of the current year pay award on service provision, with employee costs and officer time being the main cost driver for many of the proposed fees, whilst ensuring services remained accessible to all residents given the current cost of living crisis.

This approach also reflected the feedback from the budget consultation event where the majority of respondents felt that a cap less than inflation should be applied for 23/24, followed by a year where inflationary costs were fully reflected in the fees and charges review.

Inflation had been added to the majority of non-statutory fees in order to achieve total cost recovery, except where fees had already been approved for 23/24 (such as green waste collections), or to ensure charges remained comparable to benchmarking data across the sector (as with the crematorium with an average increase of 3.2%).

Those services where no increase had been proposed were:

• Car parks
• Markets, 
• Bulky waste, and the
• Trinity arts centre for theatre hire

There were two service areas where the income budgets had been amended to reflect updated business plans which had been presented to committee earlier in the year, these were:

• The Crematorium and,
• Markets
• Car parking permit demand had also fallen and it was proposed to reduce the income budget to reflect this. This reduction would be considered as part of the budget setting process for 23/24 but was included here to highlight that there was an expected pressure on income in this area.

The net impact of the F&C review for this Committee was an increase in income of £6,100 in 23/24, rising to £55,100 in 27/28. The significant increase in 27/28 was due to the forecast demand for planning fee applications in that year.

Note:              Councillor J. Oliver returned to the Chamber at 8:15pm

There were no new fees proposed in this report,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38