West Lindsey District Council approves rise in fees and charges

The authority’s prosperous communities committee agreed that a number of service charges will increase from next year in line with the standard retail price index rise of 3.4 per cent reported by the Office for National Statistics earlier this year.

The inflation has been applied to some non-statutory charges in relation to car parking, environmental services, land charges, licensing, planning, housing, waste and building services.

It is predicted the rises will result in £7,600 added to the 2019/20 budget and £32,000 for the council’s medium term financial plan which goes to 2023/24.

Council officer Tracy Bircumshaw told councillors: “The fees and charges have been reviewed on a cost recovery basis and in consideration of the level of demand, market conditions and benchmarking information.”

Councillors raised a number of concerns. Coun Trevor Young called for more free parking in Gainsborough, while Coun John McNeill said he was ‘disappointed’ to see a lack of increased costs to market traders. Coun Michael Devine said he was worried about an increase in fly-tipping due to increased bulky waste charges.

The move will, for instance, see the price of a single grave up to a maximum of 9ft by 4ft rise from £575 to £594.50, while one for double or triple interments will go from £805 to £832.

Statutory fixed penalty notices are set to rise to the maximum allowed by government from £25 to £100 domestically and £15 to £75 for industrial and commercial notices.

In licensing, however, reductions will see new and renewal site fees for second year inspection from £464 to £240 and in housing enforcement fees within housing will decrease from £300 to £250.

Other changes will see prices given when residents apply for things like trade waste and private street cleansing work being dependent on the needs of the customer.

The authority has reviewed more than 500 of its fees and charges with 246 of those being statutory charges set by the government and 266 being non-statutory.

The changes will now go before the authority’s corporate policy and resource committee.