Issue - items at meetings - Fees and Charges 2013/14

Report of the Strategic Director, Place (copy attached).

1)                 That the proposed fees and charges for 2013/14 as set out in the report are agreed.

46.1         The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director, Place that set out the proposed fees and charges for Regulatory Services (Environmental Health & Licensing and Trading Standards) for 2013/14.

46.2         Councillor Janio asked for further information on the removal of the Underage Sales Training charge as set out in paragraph 3.6 of the report.

46.3         The Head of Regulatory Services clarified that in previous years an Underage Sales Training programme had been offered to businesses for free to encourage compliance with age restricted sales and licensing legislation. There had been a good take up of the programme until 2011/12 when a fee had been introduced. Unfortunately, this reduced demand to nil which did not support helping business compliance or work of alcohol programme board so officers were requesting reversal back to no charge.

46.4         Councillor Mitchell commented that there was a £25 call out charge for pest control. She enquired whether this was added to the set fee for pest control treatment.

46.5         The Head of Regulatory Services replied that this was just a call out fee and was subsumed into the main charge for pest control. He stressed that the charge only applied in cases of no access to the premises.

46.6         Councillor Sykes stated that he welcomed the report which highlighted some of the important services provided by the council. He added that he believed there were problems in authorities where these services were provided by the private sector alone. Councillor Sykes supplemented that he welcomed the re-introduction of free training for underage sales.

46.7         Councillor Deane stated that she too welcomed the report and that these services were still provided by the public sector in particular pest control.

46.8         Councillor Pissaridou asked if the services made a profit via the fees charged.

46.9         The Head of Regulatory Services clarified that no surplus was made. The primary focus of the service was to cover costs via fee setting and where a surplus was found to be made, this fee was reduced. In addition, some fees were set to cover significant losses in other areas. The Head of Regulatory Services provided wasp treatment as an example which had significantly lower take up than forecast due to falling numbers of call outs related to a smaller wasp population.

46.10     RESOLVED- That the proposed fees and charges for 2013/14 as set out in the report are agreed.