Council Revenue Raise Ideas: Pay & Display At Parks & Estate Agency Services
An insight to some of the proposed ways councillors have considered to raise revenue in Wrexham have been revealed.
In a report due to go before the Customers, Performance, Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, several potential revenue increases for the Council and the reasons why they will work or would not work are revealed.
Overall there are eight options listed, with three noted as ‘preliminary ideas’ and a further five points that have either been taken forward or scrapped. Two ideas that caught our eye are a proposal for paid parking at country parks, and a creation of letting services for private landlords which could take Wrexham Council into competition with local estate agents.
The reasoning for the proposed revenue generation ideas is noted in the report as: “As a result of a reduction in Government funding, the Council, will need to replace any lost income by either generating new streams of income or by making financial savings through the reduction of services or a combination of both.”
One such proposal that is currently on hold, is the potential introduction of a ‘Pay & Display’ parking system at country parks in Wrexham like Alyn Waters, Nant Mill and Ty Mawr.
However the idea is currently not being progressed as ‘The car parking facilities in the parks are not adequate at present particularly at peak times’, and there does not appear to be enough parks budget to enable the changes required.
In Appendix 1 of the report it goes onto state that ‘regular visitors could be encouraged to buy an annual parking pass. Concessions under a scheme could be made available for ‘Friends of’ members / animal sponsors’.
Another revenue generator idea that is not being progressed is the introduction of ‘Trade Shows’, which would see the likes of heritage themed on the Museum court space and motor shows on Queen’s Square. However in Appendix 1 of the report it notes ‘Prioritising this project will mean stopping something else’.
Proposals to implement a “Premium Service for Planning and Building Control Consent” have also been stopped, as the department does not have the resources to consider the option.
The report does however show that some of the proposals have been implemented and are expected to increase revenue for the Council.
These include the increase of fines and court fees, that would see the rate of the cost of summons be increased from £40 to £50 per case. It is estimated this would bring in £49k for 2015/16. Other proposals that have been put forward include selling advertising space, which is predicted to make an income of £6k; and Increase weekly management fee form £5 to £10 in the Adult Social Care Department.
Wrexham.com recently attended a meeting where promotion of the ‘Wrexham Says Hello’ app was suggested on Council vehicles, however that meeting was told that there is a waiting list for the two Council slots per vehicle for advertising.
Three ‘Preliminary Ideas’ for income generation are also provided in Appendix 2, one of which includes the ‘establishment of a Social lettings agency managed and operated by the Council. This would involve the Council letting/renting properties on behalf of private landlords, potentially coming into competition with estate agents in the area.
The Council’s ‘spinning out’ of services to commercial companies have been previously covered by Wrexham.com in this and previous articles on the creation of a ‘trading company’.
This idea has now been developed and will be considered at the Homes and Environment Scrutiny Committee in July.
The full report can be viewed on the Council website here and the meeting will take place at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon.
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