Delegated Powers Report No
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DELEGATED POWERS REPORT NO. 763 SUBJECT: Control sheet All of the following actions MUST be completed at each stage of the process and the signed and dated report MUST be passed to Democratic Service for publishing All reports 1. Democratic Services receive draft report Name of DSO Nick Musgrove Date 06/03/09 2. Democratic Services cleared draft report as Name of DSO Nick Musgrove being constitutionally appropriate Date 06/03/09 3. Finance clearance obtained (report author to Name of Fin. officer Catherine Peters complete) Date 06/03/09 4. Staff and other resources issues clearance Name of Res. officer Jonathan Bunt obtained (report author to complete) Date 06/03/09 5. Trade Union response received (Staffing Name of TU rep. N/A issues only) Date N/A 6. Legal clearance obtained from (report author to Name of Legal officer Sarah Laws complete) Date 06/03/09 7. Policy & Partnerships clearance obtained Name of P&P officer Julie Pal on behalf of Andrew (report author to complete) Nathan Date 06/03/09 8. Equalities & Diversity clearance obtained Name of officer Julie Pal (report author to complete) Date 06/03/09 9. The above process has been checked and Name D Kanareck verified by Director, Head of Service or Deputy (report author to complete) Date 05/06/09 10. Signed & dated report, scanned or hard copy Name of DSO Nick Musgrove received by Democratic Services for publishing Date 06/03/09 11. Report published by Dem Services to website Name of DSO Nick Musgrove Date 06/03/09 Officer reports: 12. Head of Service informed report is published Name of DSO Nick Musgrove and can be implemented. Date 06/03/09 Cabinet Member reports: 13. Expiry of call-in period Date N/A – exempt from call-in 14. Report circulated for call-in purposes to COSC Name of DSO members & copied to Cabinet & Head of Date Service Date ACTION TAKEN BY CABINET MEMBER(S) UNDER DELEGATED POWERS (EXECUTIVE FUNCTION) Subject Fees and Charges for Environment and Transport Cabinet Member(s) Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Resources Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport Date of decision TBC Date decision comes April 2009 into effect Summary This report seeks approval to amend formatting and tariff charge errors within the Fees and Charges for Environment and Transport Report agreed by the Cabinet Resources Committee on 19 January 2009 Officer Contributors Nicolina Cooper, Highways Manager (Parking) Dorne Kanareck, Acting Director of Environment and Transport Status (public or exempt) Public Wards affected All Enclosures Pay and display charges – Appendix one Weekly Cashless pay and display tariff – Appendix two Reason for exemption from See sections 8.15 – 18 below. Corrections need to be made call-in (if appropriate) urgently in order to be able to make the traffic orders and implement the changes in a timely manner. The interests of the Council and public would be harmed if the decision were to be called in to the next meeting of Cabinet Overview and Scrutiny Committee which is not until 29 April. Contact for further information: Nicolina Cooper, Highways Manager (Parking), 020 8359 7576 Serial No. 763 1. RELEVANT PREVIOUS DECISIONS 1.1 Cabinet Resources Committee 23 September 2004 Decision no. 6 agreed: That increases in fees and charges in line with the Financial Forward Plan are approved by Heads of Service in consultation with Cabinet Member for Resources, and that these increases be implemented from 1 January each year, with only limited exceptions to those being increased from 1 April. That increases in fees and charges above the rate assumed in the Financial Forward Plan are approved by Cabinet Resources Committee, and that these increases be implemented from 1 January each year, with only limited exceptions to those being increased from 1 April. 1.2 Item 12 – Cabinet Resources Committee, Fees and Charges for Environment and Transport agreed on 19 January 2009. 2. CORPORATE PRIORITIES AND POLICY CONSIDERATIONS 2.1 Fees, charges and allowances need to be reviewed to ensure value for money; thus complying with the 2008/09 – 2011/12 Corporate Plan, Chapter 2: Our Values and Vision for Barnet: the Organisation and Chapter 3: Our corporate priorities of more choice better value. 3. RISK MANAGEMENT ISSUES 3.1 The Fees and Charges for Environment and Transport are in the public domain. This needs to be rectified to ensure the correct information is provided to the public. 3.2 The traffic order variations cannot be published and made until the correct fees and charges have been approved. 3.3 There is a risk that, should we implement the increased charges as set out in the agreed fees and charges report for 2009-10, there would be inappropriate inconsistencies in the levels of charging on roads within controlled parking zones and car parks. The Council could be challenged for adopting an inconsistent or unreasonable approach to setting the levels of parking charges. 3.4 There is a potential financial impact to the Council if the fees and charges are not amended. The charges were due to increase on 1 April 2009, however this is not now possible, as the report needs to be amended and the variation traffic orders published and consulted on. Correcting the errors urgently would minimise this impact. 4. EQUALITIES AND DIVERSITY ISSUES 4.1 The increases in fees and charges alongside the introduction of new charges will enable the Council to continue to provide a high quality service to all users. This will also enable resourcing to be made available to ensure that these services, and information on how to receive assistance, is easily accessible and is also promoted through a variety of different communication channels. 4.2 Some charges will be the subject of public advert, which enables all residents to be made aware of the increase in charges and their applicable date of change. 4.3 The outcomes and impact of these changes will be monitored and measured against current information to ensure that different groups are not adversely affected. As well as compared against those of different boroughs. 5. USE OF RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS (Finance, Procurement, Performance & Value for Money, Staffing, IT, Property, Sustainability) 5.1 Should the recommendation within this report be accepted and the call in waived due to the urgency of this report it would be possible to implement the revised charges by 13 April 2009, subject to the outcome of the traffic order consultation. 5.2 Potentially income for the year could be reduced by £8,000 due to the delay in implementing the revised charges on 13 April instead of the 1 April. 5.3 There are no staffing, IT or property implications. 6. LEGAL ISSUES 6.1 None other than those detailed in the body of the report. 7. CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS 7.1 Constitution, Part 3 – Responsibility for Functions – Section 3. Executive Functions. 7.2 Overview and Scrutiny Rules – Section 16 (m) – provision to exempt executive decisions from call-in on grounds of urgency (see sections 8.15 – 18 below) 8. BACKGROUND INFORMATION 8.1 It has become apparent that there are some errors in the Cabinet Resources Committee, Fees and Charges for Environment and Transport Report that was agreed on 19 January 2009 and some other issues relating to fees and charges for new schemes have been identified. 8.2 The incorrect version of appendix two (the weekly cashless pay and display charges) was circulated with the report. The appendix contains incorrect incentive charges, due to the tariffs for each car park being incorrect. A revised version of this appendix with the correct charges is set out in appendix two of this report. 8.3 The main effect is that the incentive tariffs in Bunns Lane and Perryfield Way car parks increase by £1.62; whilst for East Barnet Road (South) the weekly tariff reduces by £2.25. Watling Avenue and East Barnet Road (North) car parks remain unchanged. 8.4 Within appendix three of the report, there are three errors relating to the tariff schedules. For Church End CPZ and Barnet CPZ the schedule states that; For "Up to four hours" and "over three hours" respectively, the tariffs will go from £4.00 to £3.50 For Temple Fortune the ninety minute tariff will go from £2.50 to £2.50. 8.5 This was not the intention. For Church End and Barnet CPZ's the tariff should change from £4.00 to £4.50 and for Temple Fortune the tariff should change from £2.50 to £2.70, in line with the rest of the borough. 8.6 There are also errors in the formatting of the tariffs which need to be amended. For example; When the spreadsheet was converted to PDF format, days and times of restrictions have moved within the document and are not clearly shown in the published report, Barnet CPZ, Wood Street tariffs did not clearly show the "up to 90 minute" and "up to 2 hour" tariffs, Temple Fortune CPZ, some of the hours have moved down out of context with the tariffs that they relate Within the Barnet Extension schedule the tariff states "up to 3 hours" and "over 4 hours", however this should have been "up to 3 hours" and "over 3 hours". In order to be clear these need to be amended. 8.7 East Barnet Road car parks (North and South): these show different tariffs to those currently operating within the car parks. The tariffs within these car parks are significantly different to the rest of the borough and were created due to the local community needs in that area.