Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director of Finance. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategic Regeneration.]

This report sets out the Fees & Charges that are proposed to be applied to services from the start of 2020/21.

The Leader, Councillor Ejiofor, recused himself from the meeting following his earlier declaration of interest. [20.40] and the Deputy Leader took the chair.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategic Regeneration introduced this report which provided details on the Fees & Charges that are proposed to be applied to services from the start of 2020/21.

The Cabinet Member emphasised that, as part of the Council’s on-going financial planning, it was important to comply with the Council’s policy to review our fees and charges, as a minimum annually, taking account of issues such as the general economic climate, the Council’s overall financial position and delivery of the objectives of the Borough Plan.

The Cabinet Member outlined that, taking all the relevant factors into account, the increases in fees and charges proposed in this report were appropriate, and therefore commended this report to the Cabinet.

In response to questions from Councillor Dennison, the following information was provided:

• Regarding whether the hire charge for Finsbury Park was enough to offset the disruption caused by large events, the Cabinet Member would liaise with the relevant Member responsible for the charge’s companies paid to hire Finsbury Park to ensure that this was the case.
• Regarding whether the green charges in Appendix VII were reviewed, the Cabinet Member confirmed they were and that appropriate revisions to these charges were made.

RESOLVED

a)    To agree the proposed fees and charges to be levied by the Council with effect from 1 April 2020, unless otherwise stated, and as detailed in Section 8 and Appendices I – XIII taking into account the findings of equalities assessments as set out in section 10 of the report.

b)    To note that the Council’s draft 2020/21 Budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2020/21-2024/25 assumes that the changes to Fees & Charges set out in this report are agreed.

Reasons for Decision

It is a requirement to review fees and charges as a minimum annually. The financial position of the Council supports the view that levels of fees and charges should be maximised where possible taking into account all relevant factors including the effect on service users and any consequent demand for services.

Alternative options considered

This report summarises the conclusions after consideration of a range of alternative approaches dependent on particular services and relevant factors. As such a range of alternative options ranging from no increase to differentiated rates of increases have been considered and reflected in this report.