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Pendle Council set to review its income and ways to make savings
Published: Wednesday, 20th September 2017
Pendle Council's Executive is to consider two reports which propose ways to reduce spending and raise its income tomorrow (21 September).
The Council has experienced significant reductions in its government funding since 2010 and it’s expected this will continue at least until 2020/21.
Next year it needs to save around £1.2m and to achieve this Management Team is proposing to increase a number of fees and charges and a number of ways to save money.
It’s part of the Council’s financial strategy which aims to grow, charge and save*.
The Income Review 2017 report focuses on changes to existing fees and the introduction of new charges.
Those which are not proposed to change include:
- market rents
- adult sports pitches
- taxi licensing
- trade waste.
Those which are proposed to change include:
- Pest Control charges
- cemeteries charges
- planning – pre-application advice fees.
Meanwhile, the Budget Savings 2018/19 report highlights a number of savings options including:
- charging £10 plus VAT for bulky household waste collections
- charging £15 plus VAT (admin charge) for replacement bins
- reducing the overall cost of staffing by not filling vacant posts, allowing flexible retirement and voluntary redundancies
- reducing its budget for property repairs and maintenance
- reduction in mechanical road sweeping.
Dean Langton, Strategic Director, said: “These proposals have been developed as part of our bid to achieve a balanced budget while endeavouring to maintain services wherever possible.
“We’ve taken great care when coming up with our proposals but there are some difficult decisions to be made.”
Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council, added: “We’re being forced to consider these options because of the extent of ongoing reductions in funding.
“I must stress that they are just Management Team’s proposals at this stage and no decisions have been taken.
“We’ll carefully consider both reports at the Executive.”
If the Executive approves the budget savings proposals the Budget savings 2018/19 report will be considered by Council in October.
To see the full reports go to http://www.pendle.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/2394/executive
• GROW – doing what we can to grow business rates, new homes bonus and council tax
• CHARGE – ensuring we maximise income for current and new charges for services
• SAVE – reducing the cost of delivering services
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