Agenda item

Corporate Fees & Charges 2021/2022

To consider the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

Minutes:

Councillor T. Smith left the meeting at this juncture.

 

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

 

Councillor P. Edwards declared an interest in this item but remained in the meeting whilst it was discussed.

 

At the invitation of the Chair, the Service Manager Accountancy spoke in detail to the report which proposed the fees & charges to be applied for the 2021/2022 financial year, including the core fees & charges to be operated by the Aneurin Leisure Trust.

 

It was noted that the Bridging the Gap Programme includes a Strategic Business Review on Fees & Charges to ensure that the Council is maximising its income by ensuring fees and charges were set at a level that covered the costs of delivering the goods and services it provided where appropriate.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic had had a significant impact on the fees & charges collected during the current financial year due to e.g. the closure of services.  Welsh Government had provided funding to mitigate the loss of income for 2020/2021 and it was anticipated that funding would continue into 2021/2022 as the Council continued to respond to the pandemic.

 

The Service Manager continued by outlining the fees and charges that would be subject to a 2% increase as outlined in paragraph 5.1.2 together with the list of services that had no fee increase proposed.

 

Aneurin Leisure Trust had submitted a list of proposed fees and charges for 2021/2022 for Core Services, to be approved by Council in line with the Funding and Management agreement. The proposed increases ranged from no fee uplift to 3.2%.

 

It was noted that fees and charges generated approximately £14.8m per annum in income, and contributed towards funding the cost of delivering Council services. 

 

The Leader of the Labour Group said in light of the vote taken to increase Council Tax by 3.3% for 2021/22 and in order to provide some recourse for residents, he asked whether it would be a possibility to reduce some of the 2% uplifts in fees and charges.

 

The Leader of the Council commenced by advising that a number of proposed 2% uplifts had already been removed (these included cemeteries, meals on wheels, markets and trade waste) and careful consideration would have to be given regarding the impact that the removal of any further uplifts would have on certain departmental budgets, such as Social Services.  Whilst he was of the view that the removal of uplifts had been reduced as far as possible, further discussions would be held with respective budget holders and if as a result of these discussions there was a necessity to review any of fees and charges, a further report would be submitted to a future meeting of the Council for consideration.

 

On behalf of the traders of the borough, a Member expressed his appreciation that no increase had been proposed for markets and trade waste services and said that this was a sensible approach.

 

Upon a vote being taken it was unanimously,

RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and Option 1 be endorsed, namely that the register of Fees & Charges for 2021/2022 be approved together with the core price increases relating to Aneurin Leisure Trust.

 

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