This consultation is now closed - thank you for your feedback.
As part of our efforts to save money and make sure that essential services don't suffer, our approach to setting fees and charges has been reviewed.
We want to ensure that a consistent and fair approach is adopted across all our services and that it supports the council's overall objectives.
In future, our fees and charges will be set in accordance with the following general principles:
many services will continue to be funded from council tax and other resources, and be provided for free. Where new charges are needed to help maintain services, we will always consult with you first.
we will continue to meet our statutory obligations where, by law, we are required to make a charge set by other authorities such as central government or the Mayor of London. For example, planning application fees or parking fines.
when charges are considered appropriate and can be set by the council, the aim will be to set the charge at a level which fully recovers the costs, unless one or both of the following applies:
subsidising a service to encourage take up, for example, leisure centre charges will continue to be set at levels which encourage active participation in swimming.
subsidising services for vulnerable people, we will not seek full cost recovery if this puts services beyond the means of the people who are reliant on them.
in a small number of cases, we will consider charging as a deterrent to repeated and irresponsible use of a free or subsidised service.
in a limited number of cases (and if entitled to by law) we will consciously seek to generate surplus income from fees and charges which exceed our costs in order to fund important priorities. For example, parking charges will contribute to highway and road safety improvements.