Agenda item - Licence fees 2013/14

Report of the Head of Planning and Public Protection (copy attached)

15.1         The Committee considered a report of the Head of Planning and Public Protection setting out the proposed licence fees and charges for 2013/14 relating to Street Trading, Sex Establishments and Sex Entertainment Licences, Gambling premises, taxi licensing and other licensing functions.

15.2    The Head of Regulatory Services, explained that in order to ensure that council tax payers were not subsidising work concerning licensing administration, income was raised by licence fees which aimed to cover the cost of administration of each regime within constraints of regulation. Licence fees should not be used to raise revenue.

15.3    In the case of Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licence fees the Council had to be able to show that its licensing fees were set in accordance with specific requirements of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976. This required that such fees were reasonable and recovered the cost of issue and administration. In relation to sex establishments and street trading in consequence of the ruling following Rv. Manchester ex parte King it had been established that fees should be set at a level reasonably expected to cover costs with any surplus reinvested in the service.

15.4    Gambling fees had remained static since the implementation of the Gambling Act. However, detailed accounts had shown that this account was trading at a loss and that in order to address this, fees should be increased by £40 where they were not already set at the maximum allowed.

15.5    Councillor Hawtree referred to the level of fees paid by sex establishments which appeared to show significant fluctuations. Reference was made to the “Westminster” case and the Head of Regulatory Services explained that in order to meet legal requirements that it was incumbent on the Council to review its fees in a proper and transparent way and at level it could reasonably expect to recover within the constraints of the Provision of Services regulations 2009.

15.6    Councillor C Theobald stated that the cost of CRB checks could very high, particularly if required annually. It was explained that CRB checks needed to be carried out every three years and that these were cost neutral for the authority. If a conviction or caution was received for an offence during the life of a licence it should be notified.

15.7    RESOLVED – That the Committee approves the following variations to licence fees:

·        Hackney carriage driver fee +10%, hackney carriage vehicle fee – 7%, private hire driver fee +10%, private hire  vehicle fee -7%;

·        Sex entertainment venues and sex establishments are amalgamated and the fee for both is set at £6,500;

·        Street trading fees – frozen;

·        All Gambling Act 2005 fees are increased by £40 then a 10% increase is applied annually in 2014/15 and 2015/16 to remove the shortfall (except where already set at the maximum e.g. Adult  Gaming Centres/Family Entertainment Centres).