Meeting documents
Venue: Large & Small Committee Room, King George V House, King George V Road, Amersham
Contact: Mat Bloxham 01494 732143; email: mbloxham@chiltern.gov.uk
No. | Item |
---|---|
To sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 October 2014. Minutes: The Minutes of the meeting held
on 23 October 2014, copies of which had been previously circulated, were agreed
by the Committee and signed by the Chairman as a correct record. |
|
Declarations of Interest Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
|
Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Fees PDF 56 KB Minutes: The Members of the Licensing and Regulation Committee
received a report outlining the proposed changes to the fees and charges to
Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing for 2015/16. It was noted that this would be the first
time fees were increased since 2007. Councillors were advised that the new fees had been worked
out in accordance with recent case law, which clarified that fees charged could
only cover the cost of functions connected with the provision of a licence, and
the Council would not be able to make a profit on fees charged. This meant that some of the proposed fees
looked quite different from existing fees.
The report outlined how the proposed fees were calculated; officers had
looked at the time spent to carry out all elements for each individual
function, and had followed the current guidance on fee setting by the LGA. The Council had considered the relevant
matters that it was able to charge for and had not included the full cost of
factors such as policy setting, and member meetings etc. in to the estimate of
costs. One of the proposed changes was to operators’ licences. The existing fee structure had one charge for
an operator’s licence, and it was proposed that a stepped fee be introduced in
regards to the number of vehicles the licence was for. Different fees were proposed for a renewal of
a licence in comparison to the issue of a new licence, as more work was
required for a new licence than to renew a licence. There was also a reduced fee proposed if a
driver opted to have a three year licence.
A new fee of £47 was proposed for licences that were not granted or
proceeded with, to cover the administration work that had been carried out. Members questioned what could and could not be charged for,
and were advised that administration costs, initial visits, liaison meetings
with interested parties, local democracy costs, management costs, costs of
running the team, development of policies and web material, the setting up and
reviewing of fees, and the cost of running the licensing team could be charged
for. Enforcement costs were costs that
could not be covered by licence fees. It was noted that the cost of running the service had been
calculated by looking at the number of licences issued, the time it took to
process the licences and the Licensing Service resource costs. It was noted that this had been challenging
because of the short period of time the team had operated as a shared service
with South Bucks District Council. One Councillor suggested that the three year licence fee should be based on a “three for the price of two” formula. It was stated that there had to be consistency between the formulae for an annual and tri-annual licence. The cost of the three year licence would be 10% less than the cost of the initial grant and subsequent renewals. It was stated that some of the proposed ... view the full minutes text for item 29. |