PROJECTING advertisements onto council buildings and sponsoring car parks are among savings being considered by bosses in a bid to close a financial black hole.Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is also considering sponsoring its buildings, trees and mobile libraries to plug a £13.7m gap. Such deals could net it a total £125,000.
The council – which has among the lowest council tax rates in England – hopes this will see its share of next year’s council tax bill increase by 2.9 per cent.
Possible savings affecting residents include:
• Removing the early council tax payment discount. This would have been 0.2 per cent next year. This would remove the “disadvantage to council tax payers who cannot afford early payment”.
• Charging people for advice on preparing planning applications.
• Increasing burial and cremation charges.
• Replacing illuminated road bollards with reflective strips.
• Raising the cost of a wedding licence for civil ceremonies.
• Increasing private citizenship ceremonies by a third to £75.
• A new ‘twilight’ service for weddings later in the day, costing £450.
• Charging for forestry advice.
• Introducing a standard charge for most pest control services.
• Charging for an additional green bin.
Possible savings affecting council and schools staff:
• Stopping workers having more than one computer. This currently applies to 470 council staff.
• Getting a better deal for 75 officers and councillors who have their broadband internet connection paid for by SMBC.
• Charging schools for criminal records bureau checks. They pay half at present.
• Removing a discount for paying school meals early.
• Increased use of second class post.
• Urging staff to reduce their hours.
• Stopping newspaper deliveries for staff.
The council said savings already found including using in-house legal service for employment advice rather than external solicitors. These cost up to £330 an hour and £65,000 annually compared to £64 in-house.
But a report says it is ‘regrettable’ the council is having to put aside £2,200 for investigations for the standards committee, which looks at complaints against councillors.
A total of 31 cases were referred to the committee this year and ‘several’ are being investigated.
Click here for details of the proposed savings (item 9).
The authority – which gets the lowest government grant per head of all metropolitan authorities – has already moved to cut music and social services schemes.
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