Agenda and minutes

Members will disclose any pecuniary and any other significant interests they may have in relation to the matters under consideration.

None.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 14 December 2022.

The minutes of the Licensing Committee on the 14 December 2022 were approved as a correct record.

Report of the Corporate Director Environment.

The Corporate Director Environment submitted a report to the committee to provide members with information to assist them in setting the levels of discretionary fees and charges for licences, permits, registrations and consents, which would be effective from 1 April 2023 for various licensing activities.

The Senior Licensing Officer introduced the report. He clarified whether the members in attendance had had opportunity to review the report prior to the meeting. He told the committee that he was content that the report had set out the main changes to the fee levels where they could make changes in law; there were certain fees that had remained unaltered since the legislation had come into force. Therefore he felt that changes were necessary, and these were set out in Appendix 1 of the report pack.

The biggest change, he explained, was in animal licences, due to a review of the time taken by officers in processing these applications, as well as rising staff costs. Other local authorities were also taking the decision to increase animal licence fees.

He stated that due to the requirement of publicly advertise hackney carriage and private hire licences, the fees had also risen slightly, as well as absorbing staffing costs over the past calendar year.

Councillor Beavers thanked the Senior Licensing Officer for not raising the hackney carriage and private hire licences to a point that would be unaffordable for taxi drivers in the borough, with the ongoing cost of living crisis.

The Senior Licensing Officer reminded members that following the periodic report submitted to Full Council in October 2022, the Licensing Department had undertaken a fair review of hackney carriage and private hire licences, which had included the consideration of rising fuel prices. He said that the department would continue to review what efficiencies they could build into the service to either keep costs at the current level or decrease them back to previous levels for applicants.

The committee noted the report.