Nearly 900 charges and fees are going up in Oldham – how it will hit people in the town

Almost 900 service charges and fees are due to go up in Oldham council, with one key exception.

Prices are going up for new bins, cemetery costs, marriages, car parks and services including pest control. 

It’s aimed at helping increase the town hall’s income as bosses scramble to plug a £20m budget hole for the 2026/27 financial year. 

In past years, the council has chosen to freeze certain service charges to relieve pressure on struggling Oldhamers.

But that has meant some of the borough’s charges are much lower than neighbouring places. Finance bosses are applying a standard increase of around 10 per cent to most services, though some are seeing rises of up to 200pc. 

They includes a rise in the cost of weddings and civil partnerships, with a Sunday ceremony at Chadderton Town Hall going up by £110 to £663. 

Graves are also going up, with families now charged an extra £119 for a standard plot, bringing the cost up to £1,270. 

Those wanting to bury their loved ones out-of-hours will also be subject to a new £380 surcharge. 

Council bosses met at a budget scrutiny meeting on Wednesday (January 28) to discuss the proposals. Council CEO Shelley Kipling explained that many of the charges are to bring costs in line with other Greater Manchester boroughs, and that in some cases the council had been ‘undercharging and effectively subsidising’ some of the services by running them at a loss. 

One category of service charge is bucking the trend. Fees for taxi drivers are being reduced by around £62 to between £183 and £223 for licensing tests, and by around £14 for their three-year licenses. 

The council is also proposing a number of other measures to keep the books balanced this year, including upping council tax and introducing a new ‘fair share’ policy that requires those in temporary accommodation who can afford it to contribute towards their accommodation costs. 
There are 899 charge increases proposed this year.