Agenda item

The Chief Finance Officer presented his report for the adoption of the Revenue and Capital Budgets for 2022/23. Two joint meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees had reviewed the budgets and the Housing Review Board had considered the Housing Revenue Account budgets. Recommendations from those meetings were detailed in the report.

Discussions included the following:

·        More visitors need further services from StreetScene which incur extra costs

·        Other authorities have the same charges in all their car parks, why don’t we?

·        If we wish to invest in services for our residents then we need to increase charges as well the proposed implementation of the £10 per month local residents car park permits

·        Residents car park permits should only be offered to those who paid their council tax

·        £120 per annum for a car park permit was good value for money and no car park charges would be more that £8 per day at any seaside car park

·        Explore the possibility of seasonal car park permits for seasonal workers

·        It’s been 12 years since car park charges were increased and a lot had changed during this time such as VAT on car park charges which meant the loss of 20% of income to the council for the provision of car parks

·        This is the wrong time to increase the car park charges with prices, inflation and fuel costs rising this would add an extra burden to people

·        Imperial Road car park in Exmouth was a shopping car park and should be removed from the list of £2 per hour car parks

·        This was the right thing to do at this time our costs associated with maintaining car parks had increased and it was never a good time to put up any prices.

·        This was a comprehensive strategy which had come to a good conclusion, that now needed a strong communications campaign to push it forward as value for money.

The Chief Executive commended Cabinet and Council to date for the work they had done in terms of the wider picture where the budget was concerned. He stated that the budget was the fundamental way the council could achieve its priorities and if members and Council were to agree the terms of the budget, it would put the council on a much better footing in the new financial year. It would be essential to achieving what the council wished to attain through the Council Plan and other documentation.

The Service Lead Environmental Health and Car Parks reminded members that the council could not simply raise car parking charges to raise revenue to spend on other areas, this was not lawful under the Road Traffic Regulation Act. The council could use the revenue car parks generated as well as to manage and maintain car parks. A more intelligent management strategy would help manage the car parks better. There were some very expensive car parks to maintain and charges should reflect on covering these costs. The Act required council’s to reduce congestion and improve road and pedestrian safety. The car parks that were the heaviest/busiest used would see a price increase to reflect this, as well as most importantly perhaps encourage people to rethink not using their cars. The increases to parking charges included in the report appeared fair and reasonable, particularly having regard to comparators.

The Chair thanked all members involved in the committees leading up to this as well as officers who had worked hard to commend this budget to Cabinet. He thanked Cllr Paul Millar for his in-depth thought, research and recommendations on the issue of car park charges.

Having taken into account the recommendations from the Joint Overview and Scrutiny and Housing Review Board meetings it was

RECOMMENDED to Council;

1. To propose the Net Revenue General Fund Budget for 2022/23 of:

£14.254m including income from car park charges proposed by Overview & Scrutiny Committees with the additional car parks added as detailed in 2.5 of the report, the inclusion of staffing resources at £737k, the Tree Strategy of £50k added to the budget and £159k added to Recycling and Waste Budget. No sum required from the General Fund Balance,

2. A Council Tax increase is approved of £5 a year giving a Band D council tax of £156.78 a year for 2022/23.

3. That the Housing Revenue Account Estimates with a net surplus of £0.208m is approved.

4. That the Net Capital Budget totalling £7.919m for 2022/23 is approved.

5. For the Communications Manager to work in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Coast, Country and Environment and the Portfolio Holder for Democracy, Transparency and Communications to build a campaign promoting car parking permits available to residents.

REASON:

There was a requirement for the Council to set a balanced budget for both the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account and to levy a Council Tax for 2022/23.