Further council service fees in Buckinghamshire set to rise when new budget is confirmed

Marriage, waste and filming fees are set to rise if Buckinghamshire Council’s draft budget is approved.

The local authority proposed the increases as part of its recently published draft budget and medium-term financial plan for 2024-25 to 2026-27, which councillors will approve later this month.

Details of the planned price hikes are contained in the council’s 75-page schedule of fees and charges.

Some marriage costs are among the expected price hikes, including the use of the Disraeli Room in Beaconsfield Old Town and the John Hampden Room in Aylesbury’s County Hall.

Booking either of the historic register offices as part of the ‘Emerald’ package currently costs £294 but is set to rise to £312.

Meanwhile, civil partnerships or marriages with a celebratory ceremony will go from £971.14 to £1,029 for non-approved venues.

But not all fees will be rising. The most basic ‘Pearl’ marriage or civil partnership package will stay at £46, as will the price of converting a civil partnership to a marriage.

Meanwhile, the cost of contracted bulky waste collections will also go up. For example, the price of getting rid of seven to nine items is set to go from £165 to £177.

However, some rises are even steeper such as the price of a ‘special empty’ of contaminated bins.

For a standard 240-litre household wheelie bin, this currently costs £70 in north Bucks and £38 in the south of the county but will shoot up to £100 across all areas under the new budget.

Fees are also set to rise for some less common council services, including filming on public highways.

For example, the cost of a temporary traffic regulation order is set to rise from £2,043 to £2,186, while the fixed admin fee for filming applications will go from £359 to £384.

Such rises in fees and charges are reviewed every year and will generally increase by 7 per cent for 2024/25 in line with inflation, the council said in its draft budget.

Council leader Martin Tett has been honest about the financial “pressure” on Buckinghamshire’s budget and on those of all local authorities across England.

He told a budget scrutiny meeting last month that some fees would rise, while services such as litter removal and weeding would be scaled back.

Councillor Tett said: “Those are just an example of some of the things we are having to do.

“I take no pride whatsoever in making those announcements. They are all things that I would rather not do.

“But they are things we have to do to achieve a balanced budget and they will impact on residents. I am very frank about that.”