Response A1345522
Response to request for information
Reference
A1345522
Response date
26 August 2021
Request
1. Has the council stopped accepting cash payments in any of the following areas of council business?
a. Housing
b. Welfare
c. Tax payments
d. Childcare
e. Adult education & skills training
f. Educational support (such as learning support or council-provided tuition)
g. Leisure/sport
h. Parking
i. Health, social care, dentistry or mental health services (please specify)
j. Payments to schools (including school meals)
k. The council is completely 'cashless' (cash is not used for any payments across council business)
2. If you answered yes to any question from 1(a) through 1(j), does the council have records of the number of payments made by cash prior to the cessation of accepting cash? If so, please provide these. If possible, please provide these figures for the three years prior to cessation, in yearly intervals.
3. If you answered yes to question 1(g), does the council have records of the number of people who have been refused access to leisure or sport facilities due to being unable to make non-cash payments? If so, please provide these figures for each year since the council stopped accepting cash.
4. If you answered yes to question 1(j) (that the council no longer accepts cash for school meals), does the council have records of the number of students buying school meals in 12 months before and after the switch to cashless was made? If so, please provide these, broken down by month.
5. If you answered 'no' to question 1(g), does your council have any plans to move toward exclusively taking non-cash payments for council services?
6. Please provide a breakdown of the payment methods used for the services listed in question 1.
Response
1. Has the council stopped accepting cash payments in any of the following areas of council business?
Rushcliffe Borough Council made the decision at cabinet held on the 12/10/2010 (minutes are currently available on our website) to close our cash office, this was implemented in 2011/12 as part of in preparation of our customer services team relocating from our Civic Centre to its community contact centre in West Bridgford.
a. Housing - not applicable
b. Welfare - not applicable
c. Tax payments - not applicable
d. Childcare - not applicable
e. Adult education & skills training - not applicable
f. Educational support (such as learning support or council-provided tuition) - not applicable
g. Leisure/sport - Leisure centres are operated and managed by 3rd parties on behalf of the council, and these do still accept cash.
h. Parking - The councils car parks continued to have cash ticketing machines, which in subsequent years have been replaced to also accept card payments along with offering online app payments, the management of these machines is provided by a joint Local authority agreement with a 3rd party.
i. Health, social care, dentistry or mental health services (please specify) - not applicable
j. Payments to schools (including school meals) - not applicable
k. The council is completely 'cashless' (cash is not used for any payments across council business)
2. If you answered yes to any question from 1(a) through 1(j), does the council have records of the number of payments made by cash prior to the cessation of accepting cash? If so, please provide these. If possible, please provide these figures for the three years prior to cessation, in yearly intervals.
Due to the length of time since the council made the change, we are unable to provide these figures as they fall outside of the council’s retention scheme.
3. If you answered yes to question 1(g), does the council have records of the number of people who have been refused access to leisure or sport facilities due to being unable to make non-cash payments? If so, please provide these figures for each year since the council stopped accepting cash.
Not applicable
4. If you answered yes to question 1(j) (that the council no longer accepts cash for school meals), does the council have records of the number of students buying school meals in 12 months before and after the switch to cashless was made? If so, please provide these, broken down by month.
Not applicable
5. If you answered 'no' to question 1(g), does your council have any plans to move toward exclusively taking non-cash payments for council services?
At present we are not aware of any upcoming changes by leisure centre management companies.
6. Please provide a breakdown of the payment methods used for the services listed in question 1.
The council do not operate all the services listed and a number of these are managed by external companies.