Decision details

To consider the proposed harmonisation and variation to general licence fees for which the Council has the statutory discretion to set.

To approve the variation to licence fees and charges as detailed in Appendix A to the report relating to the Council’s scrap metal, sex establishments, animal welfare, street trading and gambling licensing functions, without any amendments, to be effective from 1 April 2024.

The Council is expected to conduct regular reviews of licence fees to ensure that, where statutory powers exist, the cost of the licensing regime is recovered from applicants and licence holders.

The Council may consider retaining the existing licence fees. However, the fees set by the predecessor authorities vary significantly and therefore costs may be recovered unfairly. Furthermore, any failure to recover costs permitted by statute would require an unnecessary subsidisation of the licensing regime at the expense of the Council’s taxpayers.