Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is to establish the licensing fees and charges that should apply from 1 April 2025 for those licensing activities where the Council has discretion to do so.

The statutory principle in relation to the setting of fees is that they should be reasonable and should relate to the costs of performing the function, including staffing, administration, testing, inspections, hearings, regulation and appeals.

Inflationary increases to staff salaries mean that costs to provide the service have increased. A 5% uplift in fees has been applied to reflect these increased salary costs.

The fee regimes under review are as follows:

·       Scrap Metal Dealers

·       Pleasure Boats

·       Sexual Establishments

·       Taxi and Private Hire

The Senior Licencing Officer presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The purpose of this report was to establish the licensing fees and charges that should apply from 1 April 2025 for those licensing activities where the Council had discretion to do so.

The statutory principle in relation to the setting of fees is that they should be reasonable and should relate to the costs of performing the function, including staffing, administration, testing, inspections, hearings, regulation and appeals.

Inflationary increases to staff salaries meant that costs to provide the service had increased. A 5% uplift in fees had been applied to reflect these increased salary costs.

The fee regimes under review were as follows:

·       Scrap Metal Dealers

·       Pleasure Boats

·       Sexual Establishments

• Taxi and Private Hire

The Senior Licensing Officer referred to an error in paragraph 23 of the report, Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Drivers numbers for 2023, which should read 1277 and not 12,777. It was also reported that the responsibility for setting scrap metal fees fell to Cabinet and, as such, the Committee’s recommendation for setting scrap metal fees would be sent to Cabinet for consideration and approval.

In response to various questions raised by members of the Committee, the Senior Licensing Officer advised that legislation allowed for Local Authorities (LAs) to charge full cost recovery on the fee regimes stated. Fees must be proportionate and not over burdensome on the fee payer or taxpayer, and that is why neighbouring LAs charged different fees.

The Legal Advisor explained that once Taxi and Private Hire fees were agreed they would be published by the Council and vehicle owners and operators would have an opportunity to comment.

The Committee considered the fee regimes as set out in Appendix 1, which reflected an increase of 5%, calculated to reflect the staff pay award and changes to National Insurance.

RESOLVED that Members agree the proposed fees as stated; and that

the decision agreed in respect to Scrap Metal Fees be recommended to Cabinet for adoption.