HIKES in fees and charges should bring Dorset Council an extra £1.75million in the coming year – with most likely to rise by around five per cent from April.

The figures have yet to be finally agreed with some councillors pressing to see no increase at all in car parking charges and a reduction in the controversial summer price hikes in resort towns such as Weymouth, West Bay and Lyme Regis.

The authority is also to look at other ways it can boost its income, although some councillors have questioned whether the organisation is cut out to make profit with a culture of delivering services.

A handful of councillors say the council should look across all its activities to see where extra income could be generated – although acknowledging that in some departments such as housing and children's services it is likely to be impossible.

Weymouth councillor Gill Taylor said the council needed to find extra income where it could, suggesting there might be some scope to boost income in adult services providing services to those who could afford to pay.

"Looking at the council's financial situation we have got to look everywhere for income generation," she told a scrutiny committee meeting on Friday.

Cllr Robin Cook said while some income levels were good in places there might be scope for setting more ambitious targets although he questioned whether officers were of the mindset to look for business opportunities as they had been trained to deliver services.

The same thought came from Weymouth councillor David Gray who said that although the authority's culture was to provide services, not look for profit, he suggested there are areas where Dorset Council excelled , which might be suitable for charging what he described as a "Dorset Premium" price.

The council's executive director for corporate delivery and chief financial officer, Aidan Dunn, said the council was projected to bring in £176m in fees and charges in the coming year – ranging from library fines to planning fees and car parking charges.

Among the income figures is £152,000 a year for selling advertising space on the county's roundabouts.

The committee heard that in many cases rules and regulations, such as the Care Act, prevented making a profit while in other areas any rises were limited – although there were areas where the council could set its own fees and charges

The director said there was a debate to be had around the issues surrounding the approach to increases in fees and charges – balancing the need for income against providing services.

Said a budget report: "An average increase in fees and charges income has been estimated at 5%, with budgets uplifted accordingly. It is expected that this average increase will be delivered through a mix of price and volume increases, reflecting the Council's ability to influence demand. The average price increase is assumed to be 5%. For some services this means the variation in charges will be higher, and in others it will be lower."