Council with '£3.9m budget challenge' raises fees

Runnymede Borough Council committee has agreed to increase charges for garden waste collections and cemetery fees

Several service fees in a Surrey borough will increase in an attempt to reduce the local council's deficit.

A Runnymede Borough Council committee has agreed to increase charges for garden waste collections and cemetery fees.

Use of sports facilities like bowling greens and cricket pitches will become more expensive while previously free car parks will charge for the first time, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Council co-leader Dom Whyte, a Liberal Democrat, said the local authority would prefer to leave charges as they were but "don't have that luxury given where the finances of Runnymede stand", with a "£3.9m budget challenge to address".

Council officers told the committee that "Runnymede has offered historically low cost discretionary services" but now had to "reflect the true cost" of services.

Charges will go up by at least the rate of inflation, they said.

Conservative councillor Scott Lewis said charging for recreation areas would "affect the young, the elderly and the disabled".

"As a council we should be looking at making sure these parks are used, by everybody, as much as possible," he said.