COUNCIL bosses’ decision to raise charges to generate extra cash has been condemned as “outrageous”.

Eastleigh Borough Council is to ask residents to pay four per cent more in fees and charges for its services – above the rate of inflation.

Leader of the opposition Godfrey Olson said the move followed years of excessive charges and would put people off.

The topped-up charges will affect a host of services including waste disposal, planning matters, licence fees, pest control, stray dog collection and housing services.

Coming into effect from January next year, it means residents collecting a stray dog will have to pay £63 rather than £60 to get it back.

Services such as cemeteries, car parking, the Itchen Valley and Lakeside country parks, outdoor sports facilities and allotments, which are no longer run by the council but by local area committees, must all meet the increase.

Managers at Fleming Park Leisure Centre will also be reviewing charges.

Some areas, including transport issues such as road closure applications and hackney carriage and private hire operators’ charges, remain unchanged.

Cabinet members and full council have approved the measure, which is a repeat of last year’s increase.

Conservative leader Cllr Olson said that in the last five years charges had increased considerably and that the council was using excessive charges as a way to balance the books.

“They boast that the council tax hasn’t increased, but their way of getting the money is by way of fees and charges,” he said.

“It’s outrageous with inflation running just over one per cent.”

Cllr Olson criticised increasing car parking charges, which already rake in £3m per year, arguing that this would not encourage more visitors to the town centre.

Council leader Keith House said charges were for things people choose to have, whereas council tax was not, and that the council’s strategy was to protect services and keep council tax down through increasing prices.

“If Cllr Olson is really concerned about this he should have come along [to the meeting] and argued his case and say what we should do instead,” he added.

He said the charges were one per cent above the retail price index for December – a figure the council always refers to – and this has been the same level of increase for the last ten years.