Stafford Borough Council looks to up garden waste and parking charges

The cost of Stone town centre car parking and getting your brown bin emptied will be increasing next year, along with many other council services.

On average, fees and charges will increase by six per cent, which is lower than the rate of inflation measured by the consumer price index or the retail price index in July 2023.

As a result, garden recycling will increase to £42, an increase of £6 compared to the previous year. Some parking charges are also increasing on evenings and Sundays from £1.00 to £1.10 and in Stone 1-hour parking increased from £0.70 to £0.80.

One of the reasons parking charges are increasing by 10p is that is the minimum increase the machines will accept. If the council wanted to impose a lower increase, this would mean updating the parking machines at a huge additional cost to the council.

However, some new charges are being introduced, such as a food premises advisory visit which will cost £175.00 or an early morning cremation service costing £550.00. Some fees and charges have been removed, like food hygiene training course fees and the replacement of lost season tickets for parking.

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Introducing the changes, cabinet member for resources, Councillor Ralph Cooke said:

“In general, the schedule shows an increase of around six per cent, some slightly higher due to rounding, and of course, we do have to round up with some charges in some cases, and that could be to the nearest 10p; £1 or £10 and that can distort the increase. Some charges, of course, are governed by external regulations, we have no control over these charges.”

Speaking about the increase in garden waste recycling, Councillor Cooke seemed to blame the previous administration for not increasing the fees last year, which have forced a larger increase this year. He said:

“That reflects a planned increase in the 23/24 budget cycle that was planned before the administration changed.

“So that is a planned increase, also the fact is last year the price was frozen, I can’t think why it happened to be frozen in that particular year, but I’m sure people might guess. That means that instead of it rising incrementally over a couple of years, you have to scale a very high cliff because no extra was charged the year before.”

The complete fees and charges changes have to be agreed upon by the full council before being made available publicly on the Stafford Borough Council website.