Fees and charges 2024/25 consultation

Read more about this consultation

We asked

We asked for your views on the proposed schedule of fees and charges, to be implemented from January 2024.

You said

We received 14 responses to the online questionnaire. 12 of the respondents made a comment and the comments were:

• Fees and charges, specifically service charges should be scraped for freeholders. We have lost amenities like parking and parks, land from the estate has been sold to Notting Hill Gensis, yet free holders are asked to pay service charges when you want to turn the estate from public to private. Not to mention the office is now on the estate! Please do not increase parking charges.
• Council tax is high enough already. Don't agree with charges automatically being increased each year.
• Families are struggling enough without you increasing prices. I will have to move out of Barnet if you increase yet again as I won't be able to afford to stay in the Borough.
• The document is too long you need to summarise key changes.
• This will be an extra burden on the people of Barnet.
• They should definitely not be increased - why should people have to pay more at this time when the cost of living is so high.
• I would not like it to rise, as I believe my council tax is already high enough; despite this, potholes on roads in my area remain not fixed.
• I understand that prices are being raised but I think it's really expensive to have a green bin and think it should be less.
• I think that charges should be as low as possible. i don't think they should be increased due to cost of living crisis. i think some fees should be scrapped.
• They are driving out local businesses - need time to recover from Covid and Brexit - hold back on increases.
• In such a hard time financially for people, when they are struggling to purchase food for their children to survive I do not think it is the right time to increase charges for basic things.
• I do not think the fees and charges are proportionate to the services they provide, particularly with service charges and parking. Also planning authority management staffer charging hourly for their advice.

We did

We reviewed the responses, and they were reported to the Council meeting on 17 October 2023. Council approved the proposed non-executive fees and charges. The executive fees and charges were authorised under the delegated authority of the Leader of the Council, Cabinet Member for Resources and Effective Council. The responses were also reviewed in this Cabinet Member Delegated Decision report.