Agenda item

Minutes:

Members gave consideration to a report which detailed proposed fees and charges for service areas and functions, within its purview, to take effect from 1 April 2018.

 

In presenting the report the fees and charges policy and process was summarised to Members.

 

The review of fees for 2018/19 had built on the robust exercise carried out in 2017/18 combining the benchmarking previously undertaken with an assessment of the level of cost recovery. 

 

Section 3 of the report summarised the main increases, it was noted that 237 of the 513 fees reviewed were statutory, thereby set by Central Government. 76% had experienced no change whilst 24% had seen an increase.  The increases in fees and charges for statutory services sat primarily within Environmental Services and related to charges set by DEFRA.  A 4.5% increase across all charges they set had been agreed following national consultation.

 

Of the 273 non statutory fees and charges (charges set locally) 62% had experienced no change with 38% having increases proposed.   Some of the increases were as a result of business cases already having been approved in 2017/18, car parking for example.   Other areas proposing increases were Land Charges, Pre-Application advice and Licensing by a standard RPI increase of 3.5%

 

Debate ensued and Visiting Member Councillor Smith expressed concern at the proposed increase in respect of pre-application advice at time when he considered the service to not be performing satisfactorily, suggesting that this was simply about raising money.

 

The Head of Paid Service responded thanking Councillor Smith for the questions he had posed.  However Councillor Smith’s view of the service and its performance was wrong.  Recent independent assessment of the service, including a recent audit by Audit Lincolnshire and DCLG returns confirmed the service is performing well.  The Head of Paid Service concurred the service had previously underperformed but this was not now the case. Members were reminded that if they had specific examples of service failure with evidence they should raise these with the relevant team manager.  With regard to pre-application advice this was a discretionary fee, yet despite this, demand for the service had increased year on year, suggesting it was valued by the people that took advantage of it and assisted in managing demand within the service.    

 

Councillor McNeill suggested the wording regarding parking charges in Market Rasen could be more kindly phrased.

 

RESOLVED that: -

 

(a)       having considered the proposed fees and charges, as detailed in Appendix A - L of the report, they be RECOMMENDED to the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee for approval;

 

(b)       Managers keep fees and charges under review throughout the year and to implement changes during the year if required

 

Supporting documents: