People in Stockport could pay more to park, get married and replace missing bins under new plans to close a £17m hole in the council’s finances. A town hall report reveals that the budget gap for the 2023/24 financial year has ballooned to £16.9m from the £10m deficit forecast in February - and grows to an eye-watering £33.3m in 2024/25.
Bosses say the council is facing a period of ‘unprecedented uncertainty’, linked to volatility in the energy prices, the cost of living crisis and the fallout from the pandemic. It also warns of ‘additional risks’ created by national and global issues which are ‘totally unpredictable’.
These factors - combined with continued uncertainty over funding and tax-raising powers from central government - have combined to have a significant impact on the council’s Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP). Bosses previously found £12.7m of medium term savings but more than £10m has now been added back to the balance sheet due to 'adverse national economic conditions and increasing service demand'.
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Coun Malcolm Allan told a recent cabinet meeting that while the plan was ‘robust’ the council would continue to give priority to the ‘most disadvantaged and least able to help themselves’. The ‘ambition’ to freeze council tax to take pressure off residents also remains.
The new savings proposals - to go before town hall scrutiny committees next week - are as follows.
Increase in Parking Charges - £200,000
Papers say a thorough review of parking charges is underway, with a view to increasing or introducing charges in selected car parks and areas of the borough. Should the council need to run a public consultation it is likely to begin in November.
However, If it is found that increases in parking charges will cause ‘too significant a financial burden on the people’ the proposal could be axed. Perhaps the most controversial of the proposals, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked Coun Allen if it could leave the council open to charges of making life harder for residents at the time they most need support.
He said: “The parking charges looks like a big figure, but the quantum that might involve in terms of parking charges is quite small. At the moment there are 30p parking charges, it would not need to be a big increase - it would be a low percentage figure. It would not be 30p to a pound, it would be a very small increase.
Coun Allen continued: "That might be standable because we are talking about coppers, not pounds, but we are very open to feedback. It’s always controversial - it was controversial last year.” There are also two other areas where residents may end up paying more.
Increased fees to replace bins - £40,000
This would increase charges for replacement bins from £15 to £20. This would see the council continue to subsidise this service activity as the cost of the bin, delivery and administration is around £40. Hiking the fee could bring in an extra £40k for the authority, based on an average 8,000 replacement bins per year. Further analysis will be undertaken to confirm exact potential income.
Any consultation would begin November.
Increased in fees for marriages, civil partnerships and other ceremonies - £25,000
Ceremony prices would rise and some services would have an additional administration fee. If approved, proposals are to be implemented from April 2023.However, it is noted that increased charges could see a drop in the number of bookings.
Coun Allen believes these may not prove quite as contentious due to being services people only use very occasionally. “I have not had a replacement bin for 20 years,” he said.
“It’s costing us virtually twice as much as we charge residents at the moment. We think not covering that cost, but putting a small £1 increase would be reasonable, because it’s only occasionally people need to replace a bin.”
He said it was a similar situation with registrars’ fees, which also do not cover the full cost of the service. “It’s maybe three or four times a year you need a registrar,” he told the LDRS.
"That’s probably something you can cope with when there are significant life events like that.”
Further proposals include the following:
Libraries service review - £180,000
Under this proposal there would be an increase in self-service (Open Plus) hours at libraries across the borough - meaning longer periods during which facilities are unstaffed. This would see a roll-out of self-service technology as well as a review of the amount of money spent on new books. Bosses say the aim is to continue to provide a service while avoiding any library closures.
If approved, proposals will be implemented from April 2023. Consultation is likely to begin in November. Consultation with library staff will be ‘undertaken where required’.
Information and advice services review - £20,000
A review of services providing information and advice to Stockport residents. Bosses expect this to have a ‘limited impact’ on staff and services. If approved, proposals will be implemented from April 2023.
However, papers note ‘there is a potential risk in any rationalisation’ of these services due to the increased demand during the current cost of living crisis. Coun Allen says the proposals are a bid to keep services running in the face of mounting financial pressures.
“We really love library services in this administration,” said Coun Allen. “Some of this is to make sure we don’t have to close libraries.”
“We are doing a lot of other things to make sure that information is available to people who need help. There’s a very specific part of the council website which appears when you go on about the cost of living crisis collected in one place - all the stuff that’s available, even if it’s not from the council.”
Coun Allen says the council is also working closely with ‘third sector’ voluntary and community groups, as well as other public sector partners, to ensure people know how to access advice, services and benefits.
Leisure Services review - £100,000 per year
Life Leisure - which operates leisure services in the borough - is carrying out a service review to identify savings ‘while mitigating impacts on health inequalities’ for residents. The provider has been run by Stockport Active CIC - a council-owned Community Interest Company - since last year.
Coun Allen says the new management is looking at things ‘afresh’. “We are anticipating we will get some savings from that,” he added.
Maximise Staff Capitalisation - £100,000 per year
The most technical of all the proposals, this essentially means accurately accounting for how staff are deployed between revenue services (funded by council income) and capital projects (bigger infrastructure schemes often funded by borrowing or grants) in order to balance the books.
The report Responding to Our Medium Term Financial Plan will go before the council’s scrutiny committees next week (w/c October 17). It outlines ‘the budget proposals being considered by the cabinet to address financial and demand challenges, enable longer term transformation, and ensure the delivery of shared strategic partnership ambitions’.
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