To comment on the report and make any recommendations to be considered by Cabinet.

Adele Taylor said that the full fees and charges report was part of the agenda pack, the Panel were asked to provide any comments on the proposals. This included the financial implications which were included as part of the draft budget. Lines that were statutory had been indicated and service areas were asked to consider the fees impact on the budget, for example an increase in volume should be fed into the service area income budget.

 

Councillor Price commented that there was no point in the Panel discussing non-discretionary items as these were fixed. This was confirmed by the Executive Director of Resources.

 

Councillor Price asked if there was a rationale for some areas which had increased and other areas which had not.

 

Adele Taylor explained that some increases could be higher due to the scale of some of the fees, cost recovery could be a factor if costs had also increased. Average increases could be skewed if one specific fee had increased which had affected the overall average.

 

Councillor Price asked why the parking fees had gone out to public consultation but no other fees in the budget had done so.

 

Adele Taylor said the parking fees formed the majority of the council’s income which was why officers had focused on this area.

 

Councillor L Jones said that inflation was forecast to drop rapidly over the next couple of months, she asked why the finance team were not using the forecast on inflation.

 

Adele Taylor said that the rate of inflation was taken at the current point in time, the same had been done for expenditure. Some of the fees and charges were driven by costs in year. All fees and charges were done on an individual service basis, these service areas could justify any rises if needed.

 

Councillor L Jones did not understand what other costs had been incurred on parking over the past year, other than a loss in income. She did not believe that parking charges needed to be raised to match coinage as parking charges were now done digitally. Councillor L Jones suggested that particularly in Windsor, residents needed more than a one hour discount on parking, residents needed to be encouraged to use their local high street. She requested to Cabinet that the parking charge was not increased, that the inflation rate used needed to be revaluated and that residents were given a greater discount on parking.

 

The Chairman recalled that the parking team had benchmarked parking charges against other local authorities and RBWM had low parking charges, in comparison.

 

Alysse Strachan, Head of Neighbourhood Services, confirmed that benchmarking had been done with neighbouring authorities and also with other authorities in different areas of the country. RBWM was largely similar in the level of charge for parking.

 

Councillor Sharpe wanted to ensure that comparisons had been made locally, residents of RBWM were only likely to visit other local town centres for shopping.

 

Councillor Werner felt that the cost of parking in Windsor was shocking, he said it was cheaper to travel and park in Bracknell. Councillor Werner said that residents should have a greater discount at car parks in RBWM, they should not be charged the same level as tourists.

 

The Chairman highlighted that an increase in discounted parking would have to be offset by revenue in another area, to ensure that the budget remained balanced.

 

Councillor Werner suggested that there should be a proper residents discount scheme, where residents paid a fairer rate which was less than what tourists were charged. The more parking charges were raised, the less residents would use RBWM car parks. The council was losing customers to Bracknell and Wokingham due to the cost of parking.

 

Councillor Shelim understood that some of the car parks in Windsor were near tourist areas and it made sense why the charges in these car parks were higher. Other car parks were used by residents and the charges should be kept as low as possible.

 

Councillor Bond noted that there was a proposal to charge for parking in Maidenhead on a Sunday but this was now going to be withdrawn and he welcomed this change. He also understood that the one hour free parking for residents would be extended to a third car park in Maidenhead. Councillor Bond felt the Panel should be informed of the estimated cost, so that this could be factored into the overall budget proposals.

 

Adele Taylor said that any amendments to the budget would be part of the Cabinet agenda which was due to be published on 1^st February. She was unable to comment further until the agenda had been published, which would contain the final confirmed information.

 

Councillor Price was concerned that a price increase on parking would affect businesses in Windsor as well as residents.

 

Councillor L Jones said that Windsor did not benefit from free parking on Sundays, the price was the same regardless of the day. She felt that this showed the inequality between Maidenhead and Windsor. Councillor L Jones commented that there was a high chance that residents would not choose to park in Windsor for shopping or leisure activities due to the cost.

 

Councillor Sharpe pointed out how poor he felt the parking was in Ascot during race days. Local residents should be considered to ensure that they were not forgotten.

 

The Chairman suggested that the Panel could ask the Cabinet Member for Finance to check the distribution of increased car parking charges across the borough and to ensure that the potential impacts on Windsor and Ascot had been considered.

 

Councillor L Jones suggested that the inflation rate should be reviewed, parking charge increases were not tied to coinage and therefore should be reconsidered and that the resident discount scheme should be expanded, especially in Windsor.

 

Adele Taylor reminded the Panel that if any recommendations had an impact on the income total, alternative sources of funding would need to be considered.

 

Councillor Walters felt that the impact on businesses in Windsor from a rise in parking charges would have been taken into account by officers when the decision was made.

 

Alysse Strachan said that the reference made to York being a comparison was because Windsor was also a tourist destination. The daily parking budget was up to around 96% of pre-Covid levels, however season ticket income was much lower and was around 55% of pre-Covid levels.

 

The Chairman felt that it was appropriate to ask the Cabinet Member for Finance to note the comments which the Panel had made and to consider whether there were any elements in the points which had been made that should be addressed before the budget was proposed to Full Council for adoption. This recommendation was seconded by Councillor Werner.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the comments from the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Panel on parking were considered by the Cabinet Member for Finance.

 

Councillor Sharpe said it was important to not let things get out of control and that the council had the funds to cover all services in the budget. In other areas, charges had not been increased at all. One example was charges on anti-social behaviour, he asked if this was something that the council could change.

 

He was informed that this was a non-discretionary charge, therefore the council had no power to amend this amount.

 

Councillor Price felt that the charges for film units were low, she suggested that this market could bear higher prices.

 

Adele Taylor said most of the income would come from the price on application, so this could vary.

 

Councillor Price was surprised that the charge for hiring the Guildhall in Windsor had not increased, she felt like this was a missed opportunity.

 

Adele Taylor said that the Guildhall was charging fairly significant rates compared to other venues, uptake on its usage was plateauing.

 

Councillor Price was concerned that the charge on the collection of special waste had increased, residents could be more likely to fly tip which would cost the council more money in the long term.

 

Alysse Strachan understood the concerns, there had been a lot of research done on this. The organisation Keep Britain Tidy had confirmed that there was little to no increase in fly tipping as a result of charges being increased. She was aware of some authorities which had no charge on waste collection but still had high levels of fly tipping, therefore no definitive correlation could be made.

 

Councillor Price asked if the charge for rooms at the library applied to all organisations. The police had recently given a presentation to residents using this space, she asked if they would have been charged by the council.

 

Adele Taylor confirmed that all organisations were charged for their use of the library space.

 

Councillor Bond was disappointed to see the charges for sports pitches were increasing more than inflation when it was good for people to participate in exercise. He noticed that sexual entertainment venue licenses and sex shop licenses were charged at the same amount, particularly when other things like the Windsor Horse Show and the triathlon paid significant amounts to the council. Councillor Bond suggested that he would like to see the cost of these licenses be increased so that they were in line with inflation. One of the budget proposals was to review public conveniences in parks, it did not seem appropriate or convenient to implement this.

 

Councillor L Jones asked if there was a discount or benefit on special waste collection for those who were disabled or the elderly. Allotments were increasing by 15%, this was a £50 increase a year which was significant. The council were meant to be encouraging people to exercise and maintain wellbeing, increasing the cost of sport pitches and allotments went against this principle.

 

Alysse Strachan confirmed that there was a 50% discount on waste collection available to those on housing benefits. On sport pitches, the tariff in RBWM was particularly low when compared with neighbouring local authorities, it was important that the council was able to cover the cost of the maintenance of these areas. Allotments were very popular, in some places there was a ten year waiting list in place. These prices were also comparable to other authorities.

 

Councillor Shelim asked why on the annual fee for premises licenses, the report said ‘see website’. He asked if it was therefore a different amount for each premise.

 

Adele Taylor said that the amount had not been set which was why the website had been referenced in the report, she would confirm this after the meeting.

 

ACTION – Adele Taylor to confirm the reason why ‘see website’ had been referenced in the report.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel provided comments on the proposed fees and charges for 2023/24, these would be published as part of the budget report for consideration by Cabinet on 9^th February 2023.