Meeting documents

COUNCILLOR B. SUMMERS (CHAIR)

Councillors: S. Healy
D. Bevan
G.A. Davies
D. Hancock
J. Hill
W. Hodgins
T. Smith
B. Thomas
D. Wilkshire
B. Willis

It was noted that no requests had been received for the simultaneous translation service.

The following apologies for absence were reported:

�

Councillors G. Thomas, J. Wilkins and L. Winnett

No declarations of interest or dispensations reported.

Consideration was given to the report of the Team Manager Licensing which presented the proposed licence fees for 2019/2020 under the remit of the Statutory Licensing Committee, in relation to the following non-statutory licences:

�

� Gambling
� Hypnosis
� Film Classifications

�

The Team Manager Licensing presented the report and confirmed that the background and methodology used in setting licence fees was explained in Appendix 1, which was considered and supported by the Licensing Committee on the 6th November, 2018. The Authority agreed that licence fees should be charged on a cost recovery basis.

�

The Officer went through the report in detail and highlighted points contained therein. In relation to the gambling fees, the Officer explained that these had been implemented from the 1st August for past two years, following concerns raised by a local business that the fees were too high. As a result it was proposed to bring the gambling fees into line with other fee setting processes, by approving the fees implemented in August 2018 for a further year, but to run from the 1st April, 2019. This would allow all fees to be considered together, thereby negating the need for separate scrutiny for gambling fees thus minimising costs.

�

However, the Officer confirmed that the local business referred to remained concerned at the level of the fees and intended to seek a judicial review. However, the Officer was confident that the fees were reasonable and had been calculated correctly bearing in mind the amount of work undertaken during the licensing process.

�

In response to a question raised by a Member regarding adoption of the fees from April instead of August, the Officer explained that it was proposed to re-approve the fee set in August 2018 to run until 31st March, 2020, thus extending the fee agreed previously by 6 months.

�

A Member then referred to bullet point 3 of section 2 on page 12 of the report, and asked why �licensing committees� had been included as direct staff costs as attendance at Committees was included within Members� allowances.

�

The Officer agreed that an element of Members� allowances was allocated to undertake duties as part of the democratic process, and part of that process included Members undertaking reviews of services etc. She pointed out that the licensing service was run on a full cost recovery basis, and it was reasonable to charge an element of staff costs to the democratic process, i.e. the Licensing Committee.

�

The Officer confirmed that the methodology used in the fee setting process was in conjunction with LGA Guidance and had also been adopted by DEFRA.

�

A discussion ensued when it was agreed that the sentence be amended to read �administration costs� instead of �licensing committees�.

�

RESOLVED accordingly.

�

FURTHER RESOLVED, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and the Licensing Committee approve Option 1, namely that the fees outlined in the report be recommended for approval.
�