Brighton & Hove City Council
Licensing Committee (Non Licensing Act 2003 Functions)
3.00pm 12 October 2023
Council Chamber, Hove Town
Hall,
Norton Road, Hove, BN3 3BQ - HTH/CC
MINUTES
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Present: Councillors Sheard (Deputy Chair), Pickett (Opposition Spokesperson), Davis, Baghoth, Cattell, Czolak, Fowler, Hewitt, McGregor, Nann, Robinson and C Theobald
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Apologies: Councillors Lyons and Thomson, and Daniel |
9 Procedural Business
(a) Declarations of Substitutes
1.1 There were none.
(b) Declarations of Interest
1.2 There were no declarations of interests in matters listed on the agenda.
(c) Exclusion of Press and Public
1.3 The Committee considered whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of any of the items listed on the agenda.
1.4 RESOLVED: That the press and public not be excluded.
10 Minutes of the Previous Meeting
RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Non-Licensing Committee (Non-Licensing Act 2003 Functions) Meeting held on 29 June 2023 be agreed and signed as a correct record.
11 Chair's Communications
The Chair gave the following communications:
Setting fees – important that we recover costs of providing the service especially given the overall budget position
Taxi Enforcement Report which includes a spread setting out the enforcement action taken over the last year.
These drivers are the exception and majority of drivers do a brilliant job, going above and beyond their responsibilities. An example of this was some positive feedback the team received recently…
“Hello. I wanted to let you know about one of your taxi drivers today. He is an absolute credit to Brighton - we witnessed him helping out a blind man on Brighton seafront: ensuring that he was safe and that his other customers were happy to share a taxi with the man who was visibility distressed and appeared to be lost. Such a great and touching thing to do. My mum is registered blind, and this gesture meant a lot me and my wife. Thank you to him.”
And the team have passed on those comments to the driver. I would like the committee to note our thanks to the driver on his good work.
Myself and Cllr Sheard have spoken individually to all the main taxi trade reps which was really useful and ensured that all reps have had copies of the proposals around the proposed penalty points scheme ahead of the formal consultation period. I would like to reassure members of the committee that this is a genuine consultation, and we will listen to both the trade and local residents on this before making any decision. We intend to continue to liaise on a wide range of issues that were raised with us including parking enforcement issues where non taxis stop in ranks for example.
12 Callover
The following items were reserved for discussion:
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Item 15 |
Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Driver Enforcement and Monitoring |
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Item 16 |
Licence Fees 2024-25 |
13 Public Involvement
There were none.
14 Member Involvement
There were none.
15 Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Driver Enforcement and Monitoring
15.1 The Chair invited Martin Seymour to introduce the report starting on page 11 of the agenda.
15.2 Councillor Theobald was informed that action is taken against drivers who don’t update their DBS check every 6 months.
15.3 Councillor Baghoth was informed that drivers pay initially to receive the DBS certificate, and then £13 per year for the update service.
15.4 Councillor Pickett was informed that since the new statutory standards from the Depart for Transport, DBS checks now have to occur every 6 months.
RESOLVED: That Committee:
1. Noted the contents of this report and that officers should continue to act as appropriate.
16 Licence fees 2024/2025
16.1 The Chair invited Jim Whitelegg to introduce the report starting on page 19 of the agenda.
16.2 Councillor Pickett was informed thorough benchmarking exercises had taken place to confirm the percentage increases in fees.
16.3 Councillor McGregor was informed that irrespective of how much a business earns, license fees can only be calculated on the amount it costs to administer the License.
16.3 Councillor Theobald was informed that the vehicle transfer fee has risen because the time taken to process the transfer fee is the same amount of time to process the application.
16.4 Councillor Davis was informed that the figures were circulated with the trade prior to committee and any comments were forwarded to Democratic Services, and that the next Taxi Forum was due to go ahead on 18 January 2024.
RESOLVED: That Committee:
1. Approved the following licence fees for 2024/25:
· Taxi Licence fees - as set out in Appendix 1.
· Sex Entertainment Venues and Sex Establishments fees – as set out in Appendix 2.
· Street Trading fees – as set out in Appendix 2.
· All Gambling Act 2005 fees – as set out in Appendix 2.
· Body piercing – as set out in Appendix 2.
· All Animal Activity Licences fees - as set out in Appendix 3.
A list of agreed fees for 2023/24 and proposed fees for 2024/25 is included in
Appendices 1-3.
Note: If the above recommendations are not agreed, or if the committee wishes to amend the recommendations, then the item will normally need to be referred to the Strategy, Finance & City Regeneration Committee meeting on 9 February 2024 to be considered as part of the overall 2024/25 budget proposals. This is because the 2024/25 budget proposals are developed on the assumption that fees and charges are agreed as recommended and any failure to agree, or a proposal to agree different fees and charges, will have an impact on the overall budget proposals, which means it needs to be dealt with by Strategy, Finance & City Regeneration Committee as per the requirements of the constitution. This does not fetter the committee’s ability to make recommendations to Strategy, Finance & City Regeneration Committee.
17 Items Referred For Council
There were none.
The meeting concluded at 3.32pm
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Signed
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Chairman |
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