Agenda item

Report of the Acting Chief Finance Officer / Director of Neighbourhoods, Environmental Health and Assets attached.

Decision Made (Unanimously):

That the Council be recommended to approve the following:

1. An increase of 2.5% be applied to all fees and charges with the exception of Licensing, Car Parking, Building Control fees, PSPO Fixed Penalty Notices, Pre-Planning Advice charges and Land Charges fees with effect from 1st April 2018 as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

2. Car Parking Charges are introduced at Worden Park to charge £2.00 per day during term time only and £1.00 per day outside of term time and at weekends (as detailed in Option Two in Appendix 2 to the report) with effect from 1st April 2018.

3. The pricing structure for existing Pay and Display Car Parking Charges is revised to remove the two lower tariffs of 50p for up to 2 hours and 80p for up to 3 hours and replace them with a charge of £1.00 for up to 3 hours (as set out in Appendix 3 to the report) be deferred to 1st April 2018.

4. The Car Parking Charges at Leyland Railway Station are increased to £1.50 a day and to £6.00 per week (as set out in Appendix 3 to the report) with an implementation date of between January and the end of March 2018.

5. The new charging policy for Building Control fees as set out in Appendix 4b is adopted with an implementation date of between January and the end of March 2018.

6. It is noted that Penalty Notice Charges in respect of PSPOs are set at £100.00.

7. The charging policy for Pre-Planning Advice (as set out on page 6 in the report) is adopted with an implementation date of between January and the end of March 2018.

The Cabinet considered the report of the Acting Chief Finance Officer/Director of Neighbourhoods, Environmental Health and Assets which provided details of the review of fees and charges pricing policies across the Council to generate additional income.

At the commencement of the meeting certain matters in the recommendations in the report submitted were clarified:

Recommendation 1: Land Charges fees should be included as an exception.

Recommendation 6: Cabinet recalled that at its last meeting the Penalty Notice Charges in respect of PSPOs was set – hence in this report the information was just for noting.

Recommendations 4, 5 and 7: The implementation dates for these recommendations should be between January and the end of March 2018.

The Cabinet also noted that there were a couple of minor typographical errors in Appendix 2a to the report.

During the debate, the Cabinet acknowledged that residents had been greatly affected by the ongoing parking problems on the Worden estate but the view was that most of these problems related to Runshaw College which was out of the Council’s control. At present there were no daily parking charges on Worden Park, however the Council does have a ‘permit’ parking scheme at Worden. The Cabinet felt that the introduction of parking charges would better manage parking at Worden. The Council had invested significant funds into Worden Park, and its attraction and users not only come from existing residents, but also from neighbouring authorities.

Although there were concerns over the associated parking enforcement at weekends prior to charges being introduced, the Cabinet reassured Ward Members and residents that robust enforcement would continue to be carried out during week days when the restrictions applied. To cover weekends and holiday periods with the parking restrictions a new Order would have to be made and therefore there would need to be sufficient evidence/views from residents that problems where occurring to proceed with this. The Council would work proactively with the County Council to gather this information.

The Cabinet noted that there was not a massive response to the consultation from users at the Railway car park and therefore felt that the new tariffs were relatively low in comparison with other authorities.

Decision Made (Unanimously):

That the Council be recommended to approve the following:

1.    An increase of 2.5% be applied to all fees and charges with the exception of Licensing, Car Parking, Building Control fees, PSPO Fixed Penalty Notices, Pre-Planning Advice charges and Land Charges fees with effect from 1st April 2018 as set out in Appendix 1 to the report;

2.    Car Parking Charges are introduced at Worden Park to charge £2.00 per day during term time only and £1.00 per day outside of term time and at weekends (as detailed in Option Two in Appendix 2 to the report) with effect from 1st April 2018;

3.    The pricing structure for existing Pay and Display Car Parking Charges be revised to remove the two lower tariffs of 50p for up to 2 hours and 80p for up to 3 hours and replace them with a charge of £1.00 for up to 3 hours (as set out in Appendix 3 to the report) be deferred to 1st April 2018;

4.    The Car Parking Charges at Leyland Railway Station be increased to £1.50 a day and to £6.00 per week (as set out in Appendix 3 to the report) with an implementation date of between January and the end of March 2018;

5.    The new charging policy for Building Control fees as set out in Appendix 4b is adopted with an implementation date of between January and the end of March 2018;

6.    It be noted that Penalty Notice Charges in respect of PSPOs are set at £100.00; and

7.    The charging policy for Pre-Planning Advice (as set out on page 6 in the report) is adopted with an implementation date of between January and the end of March 2018.

Reasons for Decision:

The report had collated all fees and charges whereby the Council had discretion to set the amount charged in order for a holistic and standard price increase policy to be implemented.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

An alternative option was the ‘as is’ approach whereby the review of fees and charges was undertaken periodically by the relevant budget holders to varied timescales and determined within the decision making processes within a devolved budget management regime.