To consider an update in relation to the impact of the Charging Policy, introduced following recommendations from the Fees and Charges Task and Finish Group, on the fees and charges setting process at the Council.
(Oral reports).
Minutes:
The Committee received updates from Officers and Members in relation to one of the recommendations from the Fees and Charges Task and Finish Group.
Officers explained that the Fees and Charges Task and Finish Group, a Group convened to review the Council’s fees and charges during 2007/08, had recommended that the Council adopt a Charging Policy which would inform the Council’s fees and charges setting process. The Charging Policy formulated by the Group had been approved at a meeting of full Council in June 2008. Members were informed that this item provided Members with an opportunity to monitor what impact, if at all, the Charging Policy had had on the Council’s fees and charges setting process as well as to identify whether any alterations to the policy might be needed. Councillor MacMillan, former Chair of the Task and Finish Group and Chair of its successor body, the Fees and Charges Sub-Committee, was invited to report on the impact the Charging Policy had had on the fees and charges setting process.
Councillor MacMillan reported that both Members and Officers had learned a lot during the first year involved in applying the Charging Policy. The Executive Sub-Committee had commenced the year by attempting to review fees and charges in detail. During the course of the year, however, it had become apparent to members of the Sub-Committee that it was more appropriate for Members to make more strategic decisions about fees and charges. They had concluded that Officers should have the discretion to set individual fees and charges in accordance with the strategic directions laid down by Members.
Officers explained that this strategic planning contrasted with the previous approach of incremental changes to the fees and charges setting process. Strategic planning encouraged both Members and Officers to focus on meeting the Council’s corporate objectives when setting fees and charges.
Members were also informed that a situation had arisen whereby the Medium Term Financial Strategy and the fees and charges setting processes had been running concurrently. Members had concluded that the two processes should be interlinked within the Council’s business, as this enabled Members to consider costs and income together. Members had therefore addressed fees and charges in the wider context of work on the Medium Term Financial Strategy in 2008/09. Owing, to the timescales involved in local government financial matters it was likely that the two processes would be managed concurrently in following years.
Councillor MacMillan suggested that the Charging Policy still had an important role to play in the fees and charges setting process. He noted that, as required by the policy, the Executive Sub-Committee had considered concessionary charging arrangements where applicable, though they had not considered individual charges. They had also, where applicable, considered subsidies and the implications of those subsidies for service charges. Councillor MacMillan noted that the Charging Policy allowed for flexibility in the fees and charges setting process. Therefore, where necessary, Members and/or Officers could suggest in-year changes to fees and charges.
The Chair thanked Councillor MacMillan for attending the meeting. He suggested that at that stage it was difficult to assess the impact which the Charging Policy had had on the fees and charges setting process. He suggested therefore that the item should be submitted for further consideration by the Committee at a later date.
RESOLVED that
1) the Overview and Scrutiny Committee monitor the impact of the Charging Policy on the fees and charges setting process in twelve months’ time; and
2) subject to the comments recorded in the preamble above, the report be noted.