Agenda item

To agree the Authority’s licence fees for 2018-19.

Key Issues

1. The Authority has a broad range of licensing responsibilities including the regulation of licensed premises, taxis and hackney carriages, gambling, street trading, street collections and scrap metal dealers. Whilst some licence fees are set by Government, others are locally set at the discretion of the Authority.

2. The European Services Directive, along with other regulations, statutory guidance and case law underline that fees must be set on a “reasonable” cost recovery basis only and cannot be set in such a manner as to generate a profit or act as an economic deterrent to traders. In determining reasonable costs the Authority may take account of costs averaged over a reasonable period (up to three years).

3. Given the current resource pressures on the Authority, there is a need for clarity about the true costs of administering licences so that fees can be set, if considered appropriate, at a level sufficient to recover those costs. Members will clearly also need to be mindful of the potential burden on businesses of increasing costs, and to weigh that against potential burden of underwriting the costs of administering various licensing functions.

4. Officers have undertaken significant work to calculate the true costs associated with different licences based upon up to date financial data. Appendix A provides a summary of these assessments of actual cost along with the current fees.

5. In accordance with Section 70 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous

Provisions) Act 1976, the Authority is obliged to give notice of any intention to vary the fees for the grant of licences for hackney carriage and private hire vehicles. It is recommended that any objections to a variation be brought back to Committee for consideration.

6. The Gambling Act 2005 allowed Authorities to set their own fees for Premises Licences under this Act for Casinos, Bingo, Betting, Tracks, Family Entertainment Centres and Adult Gaming Centres. The fees for these types of licences are to be reviewed and set annually on the 21st May each year. These fees have a limit on how much they can be set and an assessment of those fees must also be set to recover costs only. A further report will be submitted to the Licensing and Regulatory Committee on 13th March 2017 to review the Gambling Act fees to commence 21st May 2017.

Member Comments

It was asked if there was a likelihood that those increase can appeal the fees and we were told that Officers would work with those affected to explain how the figure was reached.

It was asked if losses were incurred on the Government set fees.

A Member commented on the lack of fees for hypnotists and asked if we regulated these businesses.

It was asked if mobile vehicles selling food would be subject to fees and were told that they are classed under the heading of street trading.

A question was raised regarding tattoo parlours and we advised that this will be covered under the Public Health Act 2017, with the first provisions coming into force from the 1^st February 2018.

Members unanimously approved the following recommendations.

1. Approve the fees set out in Appendix A to this report, entitled “Schedule of

Licence Fees for 2018-19”, subject, where relevant, to any required public notice.

2. Any objections, duly made, regarding fees for the grant of licences for hackney carriage and private hire vehicles be brought back to Committee at the earliest opportunity for due consideration .