THE public finds variations on charges by councils on services from school meals to cremations and parking permits "unfair or confusing", spending watchdogs have warned.
Audit Scotland found major discrepancies across Scotland's 32 councils on charges and has warned that costs for services must be consistent, benchmarked and easily explained to the public.
It cites pest control as being provided free in some areas but costing as much as £102 in others, while home care can range from £8.56-per-hour to £23.70.
Its report, Charging for services: are you getting it right?, also urges councils to implement charges in line with local needs and priorities, such as keeping gym and leisure services membership low in areas with poor health statistics.
But it warns that, while Scotland's 32 councils should compare their charges with others and be able to explain any significant differences, services are far from uniform, are tailored often to local needs and extremely difficult to compare on a like-for-like basis.
The report shows that local authorities are charging more for services in recent years amid pressure from falling Scottish Government grants, the council-tax freeze and an ageing population
Scottish Government data from councils shows they raise more than £1.3 billion a year through charges, accounting for 7.4% of their total revenue.
That figure has risen from 5.6% in 2003/04 and in the past year is the equivalent to more than half of the amount raised through council tax.
The increased importance of charges for services like adult social care, sports and leisure, planning and building consents comes also as councils face continuing financial pressures through increasing costs and public demands. Scottish Government funding to local authorities for 2013/14 is £9.9bn, down about 2.2% in real terms.
According to Audit Scotland, "there is therefore an increasing need for councils to examine potential sources of income, including charging more for their services".
John Baillie, chairman of the Accounts Commission, which commissioned the report, said: "It is important that councils have the ability to set appropriate charges for the services they provide but people also want to know exactly what they are paying for and that the charge is fair."
Shetland had the highest charges to council tax ratio due to the cost to the oil industry of using its harbours, followed by Orkney and the Western Isles, which also generate income from the ferry companies using their infrastructure.
Glasgow also had a high ratio, due to raising more charges from its businesses and tourism base.
Almost one-quarter of all income was generated by social work services, such as home care and meals on wheels charges, followed by roads and transport and charging income from activities such as licensing and registering births, deaths and marriages.
David O'Neill, president of the Cosla, which represents all 32 Scottish councils, said: "Councils are doing an excellent job of developing measured and proportionate charging regimes within very different local circumstances. This means that variation in charges between councils is often appropriate given different cost bases and local priorities."
Scottish Conservative local government spokesman Cameron Buchanan MSP said: "It's completely wrong that people in one area have to pay through the nose for one service, yet a few miles down the road this could be provided for free.
"I hope this study leads to a change in approach from local authorities so we can see some equality across the country."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Decisions on how much to charge for local services are for councils, not the Scottish Government, to take.
"The Accounts Commission's report sets out clear principles and good practice that should be helpful to councils, and we would encourage councils to take them into account in taking decisions about charging."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article