The Surrey Heath Borough Council Executive met on 19 August 2025 and approved recommendations relating to Community Infrastructure Levy funding, a call-in consideration, a transformation programme, the letting of the Main Square car park, and a hybrid mail solution contract.

Transformation Programme

The Executive endorsed proposals to meet the Transformation Programme savings target, noting that any unmet targets would need to be identified from alternative sources. The Transformation Programme was initiated in early 2024 to deliver efficiencies, income and savings across the council's base budget.

The programme is targeting savings of £3.14 million, and is focused on three priority workstreams: Discretionary Services, Organisational Design, and Council and Community Property.

Discretionary Services Workstream

The Discretionary Services workstream aims to make all discretionary services self-funding. Projects include:

• Contact Centre: Implementing previously agreed opening hours, with the main reception open 9am-1pm Monday-Friday from April 2025.
• Communications: Moving HeathScene to an online platform.
• Unauthorised Encampments: Stopping the on-call weekend service from April 2025.
• Greenspaces: Stopping seasonal bedding unless sponsorship is in place, and ceasing applications for green flag status at parks from April 2025.
• Garden Waste: Reviewing service subscription fees from April 2025.
• Town Centre public realm: Seeking sponsorship for replanting of high street planters and reducing seasonal replanting.
• Tikspac Stations: Sponsored 100% by Tikspac.
• Community & Civic Events: Delivering events with partners, and stopping direct delivery of events from April 2025.
• Theatre: Increasing income generation to become cost neutral by 2026/27.
• Public Infrastructure: Engaging in conversations with partners about who provides bus shelters, benches, toilets and playgrounds.
• Community Services: Reviewing delivery of Community Services, including Meals at Home, Alarms, Community Transport, Windle Valley, and Social Prescribing.
• Town Centre CCTV: Switching CCTV provider, improving monitoring while reducing the number of cameras.
• Museum: Aiming to become cost neutral by 2026/27.

Organisational Design Workstream

The Organisational Design workstream aims to reduce the council's establishment size and costs, focusing on resourcing in statutory and corporate areas. It includes service delivery reviews and the Choose to Leave project, which generates savings when a post holder leaves and the role is either removed, reduced, or redistributed.

The Executive and Corporate Management Team aligned on a list of projects to proceed with that originally totalled £1.64 million. In order to achieve the target for this phase of £1.9 million, the shortfall will be achieved through either future Choose to Leave savings or through a review of options initially presented in Service Delivery Reviews but without a known savings figure. In particular, these options include improvements to debt recovery and exploring income options for advertising.

Savings options being taken forward following the Service Delivery Review process include:

• Reduction in operational ICT budgets
• Removal of underutilised ICT systems
• Reduction in Members' budget
• Reduction in Mayoral and corporate budgets
• Removal of annual budget provision for Borough elections
• Consolidation of property maintenance budgets across services
• Recharging staff time to capital projects
• Revenues & Benefits subsidies now in line with what expected to achieve in year
• Remove staff uniform budget
• Recreation & Leisure budget adjustments
• Reduction in 'contingency' Environmental Health & Licensing budgets
• Removal of Standby out of hours call handling due to change in contract
• Reduction in underutilised Building Control consultant budget
• Corporate Enforcement reduction in 'contingency' budgets
• Increase pitch fees and charges (grass & 3G)
• Increase BBQ hire fees
• Contractual charges uplift for provision of Grounds maintenance services to others
• Economic Development Grant income (one-off)
• Collection of BID Levy collection fees
• Review Environmental Health and Licensing discretionary fees
• Lease additional mall space in The Square
• Tree clinic for arboriculture advice
• Review contractual recharging for services provided / fees for administering external partnerships
• Charge for copy bills and Council Tax NDR
• Income from advertising
• Improved debt collection
• Reduction of staff training budgets
• Staff Benefits Review
• Removal of ICT platform
• Reduction in Regeneration budgets
• Reduction in service budget to The Square
• Reduction in Economic Development delivery budget
• Reduction in Surrey Heath House operational budget
• Playground Spares reduction in budget
• Reduce Air Quality monitoring programme
• Remove licence costs for play inspection application (return to manual)
• Remove maintenance budgets Recreation & Leisure
• Removal of sinking funds (Frimley Lodge and Tennis)
• Stopping Neighbour Consultation Letters
• Locking/Unlocking Parks
• Closing/Decommissioning Facilities
• Kiosk – closure of the kiosk resulting in no longer accepting cash at the Council
• Bringing Legal work in house to reduce external legal costs
• Upskill internal resource on Collection Fund
• Undertake commercial lease work in house to reduce external legal costs
• Reduce tree maintenance costs
• Procurement savings funding additional resource
• Improved Debt recovery
• Hybrid Mail tender

Property Workstream

The Property workstream focuses on reviewing the council's portfolio of land and property and considering the sale of those not considered essential.

Main Square Car Park

The Executive delegated authority to the Head of Property and Economic Development, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Property and Economic Development and the Head of Finance, to enter into a lease substantially on the terms set out in Annex 1 of the Main Sq car park letting report. Surrey Heath Borough Council had been approached by the long leaseholder of the Camberley Station site, who are investigating its potential redevelopment. The developer has asked the council about the possibility of leasing off-site spaces in the Main Square Car Park, as the viability of apartment development often presents challenges, particularly the provision of parking.

The proposed letting would be for up to 210 spaces, leaving 560 spaces available in the 770-space car park. The report noted that on 29 days of the year, drivers arriving in Camberley at peak hours would have to park in vacant spaces elsewhere in Camberley town centre. At the time of peak occupancy of Main Square car park in the year ended 31 March 2025, the Knoll Road car park could absorb the entirety of those drivers who would have to find alternative parking and still leave 53 spaces vacant.

Community Infrastructure Levy Funding

The Executive agreed to allocate £85,000 of additional funding to West End Parish Council to contribute towards improvement works to West End Pavilion, located in Benner Lane, West End. The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a planning charge, introduced by the Planning Act 2008¹ as a tool for local authorities in England and Wales to help fund infrastructure to enable future development of their area.

The project seeks to improve the facilities at the West End Pavilion, increasing its popularity as a community facility, its sustainability and accessibility. A list of current hires and potential users are detailed in Confidential Annex A which indicate that the pavilion is a popular venue for a large number of activities which benefit the community.

Hybrid Mail Solution

The Executive agreed to appoint a successful tenderer to provide a hybrid mail solution for the council, on a 3+1+1 contract basis. The aim of the tender is to contract with one supplier for all in-scope council requirements, generating efficiencies and economies of scale. Hybrid mail is a system that combines traditional postal services with digital technology to streamline the process of sending and receiving mail.

Performance and Finance Scrutiny Committee Report

The Executive noted the implementation of the decision made under minute 5/E, following agreement by the Scrutiny Committee. They also agreed to write a letter to Surrey County Council to ask how it intends to meet its future legal safe highways and school transport duties at Lakeside, and to write to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation offering to support its development of the Car Park Management Plan required as a planning condition.