Council's fees and charges are set out in Pricing Policy and Statement of Fees & Charges 2009/2010 (pdf 2 Mb).

Pricing policy
Avoiding commercial advantage
GST

Pricing policy

In accordance with Section 608 of the Local Government Act 1993 and other relevant legislation, Council charges and recovers approved fees and charges for:

• Supply of a product, service or commodity
• Giving of information
• Providing a service in connection with the exercise of Council's regulatory functions, including receiving an application for approval, granting an approval, making an inspection and issuing a certificate
• Allowing admission to any building or enclosure
• Possession, occupation or enjoyment of a rail, pipe, wire, pole, cable, tunnel or structure laid, erected, suspended, constructed or placed on, under or over a public place (s.611)
• Allowing use or benefit from Council's assets, possessions etc.

Randwick City Council's general policy in determining the amount of fees to be charged for goods and services shall consider the following factors:

• The cost of providing the service
• The importance of the service to the community
• Prices fixed by the relevant industry body or bodies
• Any factors specified in the Local Government regulations
• Equity factors
• User-pays principle
• Financial objectives
• Customer objectives
• Resource use objectives
• Impact of tax reform (GST)
• Market prices
• Cross-subsidisation objectives

In cases where the amount of fees and charges for services is determined under another Act or regulatory bodies, Council's policy is not to determine an amount that is inconsistent with the amount determined under the other Act or regulatory bodies.

All of Council's fees and charges not subject to statutory control are reviewed on an annual basis prior to finalisation of Council's annual operating budget. However, in special circumstances, fees and charges can be reviewed and approved by Council in accordance with the Local Government Act and Regulations.

In accordance with section 610F of the Local Government Act, Randwick City Council will give public notice of at least 28 days of changes in fees and charges already adopted.

The predominant consideration in reviewing these fees and charges shall be full or true cost recovery or market price on a fee for service (user pays) basis. However, this principle will only be applied where the cost of the service provision can be accurately determined and the end user can be easily identified.

The various methods of pricing, which have been implemented by Council, are detailed in this section. Those pricing methods range from partial cost recovery through to the recovery of an amount greater than the full or true cost of providing the service.

Avoiding commercial advantage

Section 404(5) of the Local Government Act 1993 states that Council's statement of the pricing policy need not include information which could confer a commercial advantage on a competitor of the Council. In accordance with this section, fees and charges on the following services are not included in the statement of fees and charges on the grounds that publication of fees would grant commercial advantage to such competitors. They include:

• Plant nursery
• Roads maintenance (noxious and environmental weed control)
• Trade waste services
• Building Certification services.

GST

Fees and charges may include the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The impact of the GST on fees and charges is as follows:

• Where fees attract the GST this amount has been included and is shown in a separate column

The schedule of fees and charges has been prepared in accordance with the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999.