Agenda item - Licence Fees 2016/2017

Report of the Director of Public Health (copy attached)

15.1    The Committee considered a report of the Director of Public Health setting out the proposed licence fees and charges for 2016/17 relating to Street Trading, Sex Establishment Licences, Gambling premises, taxi licensing and other licensing functions.

15.2    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. Officers had undertaken a further review of the way the charges were calculated so that they were now based on the most recent detailed analysis of officer time. The regulation of setting fees was detailed and changes as a result of legislation and cases; outlined.

15.3    Councillor Simson, noted there appeared to be a wide variation in the levels of increases being sought in relation to different licensable activities and sought clarification as to the rationale for this and confirmation that premises were treated holistically, rather than different activities being treated as separate tranches. Councillor Bell also requested clarification in respect of this matter.

15.4    Councillor West asked how it was determined what a reasonable/right level of service provision was and how did this authority compare when benchmarked against others. The Head of Regulatory Service, Tim Nichols, explained that these figures took account of the levels of ceiling applicable and sought to ensure that they were below that and covered all reasonable costs without giving rise to a surplus. The process was highly regulated and prescriptive and although (based on very different demographics across the country), there were significant fluctuations, overall this authority sat broadly in the middle and the levels charged were considered to reflect the different licensable activities across the city. The levels charged were intended to be reasonable but also to protect the Council’s position whilst not reflecting officer time expended and enforcement work which needed to be undertaken.

15.5    Councillor Simson responded that the accepted he explanation given and noted that the level of fees charged was kept under review. For clarity she considered that the phrase “as appropriate” as set out in recommendation 4 should be removed and replaced by “no more than a maximum of”. Members were in agreement and that change is reflected in the wording set out in the resolution below.

15.6    RESOLVED - That the Committee approves the following licence fees:

·         Hackney carriage driver fee, hackney carriage vehicle fee, private hire driver fee and private hire vehicle fees all remain the same.

·         Sex entertainment venues and sex establishments remain unchanged

·         Street trading fees (street artists & misc. short term) - decreased by -5%.

·         All Gambling Act 2005 fees – increased by no more than a maximum of 20%.