Agenda item

Report of the Head of Strategic Finance

This report informs the Budget Panel on income charging policy considerations.

The Panel received a report of the Head of Strategic Finance setting out income charging policy considerations. 

The Head of Strategic Finance outlined the background to the current charging policy.  He advised that the report contained three examples of policies which he considered to be good examples from the responses he received.  He said that he would welcome Members' views on commercial sponsorship. 

The Vice-Chair commented that he considered the Watford policy to be fairly non-existent.  He welcomed the principles in the report and said that it was good starting point.  He noted that there was no logic how sports charges were applied.  There were also other examples.

Councillor Derbyshire said that it was not an easy task to get an overarching framework.  It was necessary to know the true cost of the service being provided.  Appendix 1 to the report appeared to set out reasonable principles. 

Councillor Khan said that it was fair that if someone was on a low income they should pay a reduced charge.  He asked whether it would be possible to offer a service to other authorities.  He also referred to the cost of burials in Watford.  Although there was a higher charge if someone lived outside the Borough, the cost was still lower than London Boroughs.  If the charges were on a par with neighbouring authorities there would be no impact on local people.

The Head of Strategic Finance responded that with regard to the cost of burials, these had been doubled two years ago.  The biggest rival to the cemeteries was the West Herts Crematorium, which made a profit.

Following a comment by the Chair about charging for waste services, the Portfolio Holder advised that the domestic refuse service was a statutory function.  The Council was able to charge for collecting large items.  Following on from the comments about the cemeteries, the Portfolio Holder advised that a Task Group had looked at the fees and had established the real cost.  The Task Group had then made recommendations about the charging structure.

Councillor Jeffree stated that this was an interesting topic for discussion but it was difficult when Members did not know details of the discretionary services provided by the Council.  He said it would be useful to see a list of services and then it would be possible to map them against the charging strategy shown in paragraph 7.3.1 of the officer's report.  Other services the Council could provide could also be considered.  He suggested this was brought to a future meeting.

Councillor Martins agreed the information in the report was a good starting point.  Members needed to understand the cost base and then policy decisions could be made.  Members might consider that some services could charge commercial rates.  Selling the Council's own services to others, for example planning advice, would have implications on resources but it could be looked at from a commercial view.

Councillor Meerabux considered that the issue of sponsorship could be explored further.

The Head of Strategic Finance informed the Panel that recently a company had wanted to sponsor the litterbins in the town.  There had been a suggestion that commercial advertisements could be included in the Council's literature, but it had been decided that the Council would retain its independence.

Councillor Khan suggested that there were other council-run activities which could be sponsored, for example the fireworks in Cassiobury Park and the Christmas lights in the Town Centre.

The Chair thanked everyone for the interesting debate.

RESOLVED –

1.      the categorisation of charges referred to at paragraph 7.3.1 of the report be agreed and that officers seek to classify current fees and charges accordingly.

2.      that officers present a further report to Budget Panel at its November meeting setting out details of the discretionary and statutory council services to enable the Panel to map the service to the charging criteria.