Issue - meetings

The Head of Financial and Customer Services presented the Fees and Charges 2021/22 report.  Members were advised that in proposing the charges Officers had considered the potential for charges to be set at a level that would achieve full cost recovery.  In some service areas there had been concerns about the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on customers’ finances and in these instances the decision had been taken not to increase the fees.

Following the presentation of the report Members discussed a number of points in detail:

·                The balance that needed to be struck between setting fees that were financially prudent whilst also being compassionate towards the needs of customers impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

·                The increase of 50 pence to the fee for the bulky waste collection service and the impact that this could have on customer demand.  Concerns were raised that this could result in an increase in fly tipping.

·                The extent to which people who had previously paid for a bulky waste collection service were likely to be deterred from paying for the service again due to a 50 pence increase.

·                The standard number of items that tended to be disposed of by customers paying for the bulky waste collection service.

·                The need for action to be taken to discourage people from fly tipping.

·                The fact that an increase had not been made to the fee for the bulky waste collection service for some time.

·                The level of increases that had been proposed to fees and charges.  Concerns were raised that some charges would be increasing significantly though it was also noted that many would not change and some would only be increasing by the level of inflation.

·                The recent meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group at which the report had been pre-scrutinised.

RECOMMENDED that

1)        all of the fees and charges included in Appendix 1 be approved; and

2)        subject to the agreement of recommendation 1 above, these fees and charges should be charged by the Council commencing on 1^st April 2021.