Residents face rise in the price of services

By lbishop

The cost of Mole Valley council's services are set to increase if new budget proposals go ahead.

The price of parking, rubbish collections, allotments and even burials are set to increase in April.

Although Mole Valley District Council will not increase its share of the council tax this year many of its services are set to see a hike.

Ben Tatham, the council's executive member for finance and assets, says that the changes are necessary to increase the council's income.

He said: "The objective is to increase the council's income by 1.5 per cent. There were decisions with the corporate head of service and portfolio holders and this is what they thought the best way of having that average 1.5 per cent increase was."

He added: "Last year we participated in a county-wide review and found we were quite low in a number of respects and that is part of the thinking."

Allotment plots are one of the biggest price hikes. The cost of holding a full plot is set to increase 22 per cent – from £43.50 to £52.20, with concessions the price will increase from £34.50 to £41.40.

Long-term parking prices will also increase – for the second time in as many years.

A resident of Church Walk, Leatherhead, which has no car parking provision, does not welcome the increase.

She said: "They only just put it up to £5 in the last year so I am surprised they are doing it again, that affects us. There isn't really anywhere else to park so it is going to be really hard for people that haven't got permits.

"An extra £10 a month is a lot of money."

The cost of burial and cremation is also set to increase. Chris Stoneman, the managing director of Sherlock and Sons' Funeral Directors in Dorking, said that the fees are passed onto the family.

He added: "We have no control over these costs, they are fees that we pass onto the family. They usually go up annually."

Even copies of the council's annual statement of accounts will increase from £6 to £10 if the proposals were to go ahead.

But there is good news if you want to open a sex shop in the district. The price of making the initial application is set to drop by almost 50 per cent from £2,975 to £1,500.