Agenda item

Sean Murphy introduced the report for Licensing Fees and Charges 2022/23 proposed by the JPPC for the Committee to consider ahead of consideration by Executive and Full Council.  The Committee were asked to agree that the proposed charges for operators and vehicle licence fees were put forward for statutory consultation and advised that any representation that arose from the consultation would be brought back to Committee.

The service currently ran on three legacy systems but would move to a single system which would vastly improve service delivery and service efficiency. This would allow the Licensed sector to make applications fully online, to make payments online and for reminders to be sent to them online, for example in relation to MOT certificates and insurance documentation.  As a result of the new system, discretionary fees and charges had substantially been re-worked which would be put before Full Council at the end of February/beginning of March 2022 as part of the budget setting process.  It was believed there were some efficiencies which would result in savings which would be passed back to the trade due to the nature of the preparation of discretionary fees.

The report contained a schedule which proposed a set of fees, a number of which had been reduced, particularly around taxi and private hire vehicle fees and small adjustments to operator and other License fees.

Discussion had taken place with the trade, particularly the taxi trade, around some of the additional costs associated with the driver’s Licenses and the courses that were required as part of the Council's conditions in relation to disability awareness and safeguarding.  The efficiencies produced in relation to the driver’s fees meant the Council were now able to absorb the cost of those courses and it was intended for the courses to be provided in-house as opposed to by an external provider which was currently the case.

Some other minor fees had been re-worked and been based on time, for example a replacement plate for a vehicle would have a time period associated with it as well as the cost of the plate.

Councillor Pask noted that animal day care and home boarding had a reasonably significant granting fee which was currently £354.00 with a proposed fee of a minimum of 4 hours at £236.00 and asked how long it would normally take, was this an actual fee reduction and did it impact on the Council’s budget?  Sean Murphy said items like that would take a minimum of 4 hours should everything be straightforward but in the spirit of fairness, rather than asking everybody to pay a uniform fee, some individuals may pay more if particular issues arise which meant the process took longer.  On the overall issue of budget, there had been changes to the Public Protection service as a result of Wokingham Borough bringing some elements back in-house and a number of vacancies had been held open with a view to the fact that some fees would have to be reworked once the new system was in place. The service would therefore look to balance the budget overall without further demands on the authorities by reworking the structure of the service. 

Sean Murphy added that this was the final year of the unification of the fees with Bracknell Forest with one of the last remaining areas being street-trading consents where both Councils had different fee structures in different periods whereas it was now proposed to have a combined set of fees which represented a full cost recovery for West Berkshire but which actually gave a wider range of options in terms of the period that people could apply for those consents.

Councillor Pask proposed that the Recommendations were accepted which was seconded by Councillor Linden.

RESOLVED that the RECOMMENDATIONS in the report that the Licensing Committee:

2.1 AGREES that save for the private hire operator, and hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licence fees, the fees set out at Appendix A go forward for consideration as part of the Council fee setting process.

2.2 AGREES that the proposed charges for operators and vehicle licence fees are put forward for statutory consultation.

2.3 AGREES that the charges for private hire operators and vehicle licence fees are subjected to a twenty eight day statutory consultation period from 18 November 2021 to 16 December 2021.

2.4 AGREES that a public notice pertaining to the Taxi and Private Hire Vehicles and Private Hire Operators fees is placed in the Newbury Weekly News and Reading Chronicle.

2.5 AGREES that a consultation letter is posted to all Taxi and Private Hire Drivers and Private Hire Operators in the District and that a copy of the consultation is posted on the Public Protection Partnership website and in the reception area at the Market Street Offices.

2.6 AGREES if no objections are received, the charges for operators and vehicle licence fees are included in February 2022 Executive and March Council papers for approval; or if objections are received they be considered by the Licensing Committee at the meeting on 31 January 2022 and any changes be recommended to full Council for approval was CARRIED.