Purpose

The report proposes an
aggregated 8% price increase for commercial services at the Library
service and The Atkinson in order to meet increased costs,
specifically in utilities, NNDR and staffing.  Although services such as late fines are not being
increased.

Decision

Decision(s): That
 

(1)

the proposed price increases of
circa 6% be approved;

(2)

the current prices of certain key community
activities be maintained;

(3)

the online booking fee to £1.75 be
increased by 25p; and

(4)

photocopying charges be increased by 5p.

 
 
Reason(s) for the
Decision(s):
 
It is proposed to increase the core commercial prices (for
room hire, activities etc) by
approximately 6% to help increase the revenue generated from
commercial services.
 
Some purely commercial lines, such as stage equipment hire
and commercial listing guides, have been benchmarked against
operations in the region and re-aligned to better reflect current
commercial rates,  a notable item here
is piano tuning where the costs to us have increased dramatically
so we are forced to levy a charge increase of 219% (total cost of
£280) in order to cover the cost of this externally provided
service.
 
The core library charges for book reservations and late
fees are not planned to be increased so that library use
isn’t discouraged (as it is still in the recovery phase after
the pandemic), and due to the nature of the scale of the charges
(either 1p or 12p per day) a small percentage charge would not be
applicable.  Some larger % increases are
for additional services, such as photocopying or printing, however
the actual fiscal increase is 5p for these services.
 
It is further proposed to increase the online booking fee
at the Atkinson by 25p, although this is 17%.  This still represents good value when compared to
the Liverpool Empire at £3.95 per booking or Chorley Little
theatre at £1.65 per booking, in the last 12 months we have
had over 40,000 people book online therefore this would generate
nearly £10k of gross revenue for the Atkinson.
 
We believe the alignment of the charges to more
commercially viable rates will increase revenue without decreasing
demand. 
 
 
Alternative Options
Considered and Rejected
 
Maintaining the current pricing structure will
negatively impact on the ability of the service to cover costs of
provision.