Car parking charges

Where land has been set aside for residents to have private parking allocated to them a parking charge may be collected to cover the cost of item such as signage, white lining and barriers and locking posts. It may also be necessary to have parking enforcement arranged.

 

Graffiti removal

Graffiti is often unsightly and can be offensive, so it is important that we have a contractor in place to deal with occurrences of damage by graffiti. This can include commercial cleaning of paint, power washing or surfaces, such as walls and pathways and in extreme cases the repainting of services, where the damage is so severe.

 

Open space grounds maintenance

Tree maintenance

Shrubs and hedge maintenance

As a landlord the Council's housing stock and some land next to our properties is owned and managed with what is called the Housing Revenue Account, known as HRA. All money collected and spent in the HRA must be ringfenced which means that HRA money cannot be spent to items which are not housing related. The HRA owns land which are properties are located and often in the surrounding area. This charge is the cost to the HRA for maintaining this land. The cost is not covered by council tax as the land is not part of the councils "public realm" which is all other common land.

 

Playground equipment

Housing Land under the Housing Revenue Account may have play areas fitted with play equipment such as slides, swings, and roundabouts. This equipment needs to be regularly inspected and landlords often ask specialist accident risk assessors to complete annual inspections.

 

Rubbish removal

White goods removal

This is by far one of the most difficult areas for any landlord to have to administer. Fly-tipping is a real community issue and if not dealt with quickly, others may come along and add to the rubbish. It is important that we have arrangements in place to quickly locate and collect waste. We will discuss as part of this consultation the fairest way that we collect enough income to deal effectively with fly tipping.

 

Street lighting

Sometimes there are streetlights or communal building lighting to open spaces and other areas like care parks which are on HRA land. These special lights often have to be maintained by approved contractors as the lighting is connected to mains supplies on a similar basis to roadside street lighting. You may often see vans with cherry-pickers working in the area where lighting is being maintained and cleaned.