Agenda item - Public Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by members of the public:

(a)       Petitions: to receive any petitions presented to the full council or at the meeting itself;

(b)       Written Questions: to receive any questions submitted by the due date of 12 noon on 20 November 2020;

(c)       Deputations: to receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 12 noon on 20 November 2020.

13a     Petitions

13.1    There were none.

13b    Written Questions

13.2    It was noted that two questions had been received and Mr Prescott representing Nice and Naughty. He was invited to put his question set out below:

          Licence Fees Available – Sex Shops

“The licence fee for Sex Shop Establishments under Brighton and Hove Council, is excessively high when compared to numerous other councils across the UK. During the first lockdown, my business, which has to be apply and pay for a Sex Shop Licence annually was required to complete the renewal and to pay the fee in full, even though there was no money coming into the business at all during that time. Taking into consideration that during the two lockdown periods, my business has had to close for a total of 110 days, I would firstly like to know how the Committee justify the licence fee being so high and secondly, how do you justify keeping the licence fees paid for days when no licensing works could be completed when all non-essential retail and hospitality venues that require licences to trade were forced to close by the Government.”

          The Chair, Councillor Deane, responded in the following terms:

13.3    “Welcome Mr Prescott and thank you for attending this afternoon. I have taken the decision to accept your question at such short notice because it relates to the exceptional circumstances of Covid and because officers have already spent considerable time on it. I have read the responses you have already been sent in answer to your query and there is not a great deal that I can add to this. In response to your request for comparable figures in other authorities I note that you have already received this from officers so I will not repeat them again here but I am satisfied that the charges for Brighton and Hove compare fairly with others for a city of our size. However, for the benefit of other attendees to this meeting I will request that these figures are included in the minutes.

A sample of local authority 2019/20 sex shop fees are set out below:

                                                Sex shops (New/Renewal)                            

Birmingham                                        5221/2936

Rother & Wealden                              6,300/5,250                                                      

LB Westminster                                  4,410/3,430                                                        

Brighton & Hove                                 3,700/3,380                                                       

Lewes                                                  3250/1750                                                     

Mid Sussex                                       3589/2,890                                            

Horsham                                             3,688/3,688                                                    

Leeds                                                  3180/1545                                                   

Chichester                                           1,906/935                                                  

           /                               3600/2050

Adur/Worthing                                     3077/1603

          Supplementary Question

13.4    Mr Prescott had given advance notification of a supplementary question which he was invited to put. His supplementary question and the Chair’s response to it is set out below:

“During the two lockdown periods my business has been forced to close for a total of 110 days and during this time, I have had no income into my business. Taking this into consideration, will the licence fee for that period be refunded as no work as part of the licensing fee I pay could have been completed due to the closures and will the committee be reducing the astronomical fee they charge annually to bring it in line with other councils who are able to complete the same process for less that £500 a year?”

13.5    The Chair responded in the following terms:

In response to your second,supplementary, question relating to suspending part of your annual license fee in recompense for lost footfall into your Brighton branch due to Covid, I have to point out that the fees are chargeable by law and it is simply not within our gift to be able to not charge them.

We have some 1400 licensable premises in the city many of them being pubs clubs and bars that have also had to close due to the pandemic and it is not possible realistic for us to suspend the licenses on all of them any more than it is possible to single out any individual premises.

This is within the gift of central government that lays down the legislation that we abide by the government has made grants available to small businesses affected by Covid to mitigate against loss of earnings and I would urge you to look into this if you have not already done so I see that officers have already supplied you with a link.

13.6    RESOLVED – That the questions content and responses to the questions be noted and received.

          Deputations

13.7    There were none.