Our resources

The funding the council will use to provide services in 2023/24 comes from various sources including:

Some of the services we charge for are discretionary. This means that councils are not under an obligation to provide them and they could be provided by a commercial organisation or a community group or partnership. In such cases, it is the council's policy that the people who choose to use those discretionary services should help to pay directly for what they use.  Consultation results have supported this principle and feedback has discouraged the use of subsidy from council tax to pay for discretionary services such as Leisure Centres and Harbours. As a result, there is now a clear intention to move some of those discretionary services towards a more commercial business model where they are fully self funding and  effectively receive £0 subsidy.

However, alongside this approach, all councils have to balance the level of charges which the market will bear.  As well as recognising the council's wider role in supporting people to live active healthy lives, promoting tourism and the economy and ensuring the safety of our community. In addition, any form of trading by public services requires express statutory authority and so is governed by complex legislation.

This fees and charges list compares the main fees and charges levied by the council for the last 5 years.  It should be noted that:

•  In this time, some charging structures have changed and a year by year comparison may not always be possible
•  a number of fees and charges are set by central government or by statute and cannot be changed locally (S)
•  other fees can be set locally but can only be set to recover the cost of providing the service
•  some fees are subject to assessment of individual service users ability to pay
•  and the remaining fees can be set locally and changed by the council (L
•  fees and charges have been quoted inclusive of VAT where applicable
•  in the majority of cases fees and charges increase each April as part of the budget setting process
•  however in some cases, they change with calendar years, academic years or in line with legislative reviews
•  these fees are therefore correct at the time of publishing, but should  always be confirmed with service areas direct
•  this list pulls together the main fees and charges but is not comprehensive

Where fees and charges can be paid on line we have given the links to the website in the register.

Download and print the Latest Fees and Charges Register (PDF, 1.13Mb, 20 pages)