Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Paul Griffin, Nick Southworth and Andrew Wood.

Councillor Tony Green declared a prejudicial interest in item 5 (Draft Charitable Collections Policy) as he is a member of the Royal British Legion for the High Wycombe area and arranges collections during the poppy appeal period.  Councillor Green left the room prior to the commencement of the debate on this item and did not return or take part in the vote on this item.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 June 2023

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 14 June 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

The Committee received a report on the new draft Scrap Metal Licensing Policy following a six-week public consultation. The purpose of the report was to provide a summary of the consultation responses, to comment on these and to identify and recommend any changes to the draft policy in response to the consultation.

On the 14 June 2023, the Licensing Committee approved a new draft Scrap Metal Licensing Policy for public consultation.  A six-week public consultation on the draft Policy was carried out, primarily by way of a survey published on Your Voice Bucks. The consultation process ran from 03 July 2023 up to and including 13 August 2023.  In total, there were only 6 responses during the consultation period. 5 people responded to the survey and an additional 1 response was received by email. The summary of survey responses was attached at Appendix 1 of the report. The free text comments provided via the survey were shown in Appendix 2 of the report. An email response was received from Bucks Fire and Rescue Service and was attached as Appendix 3 of the report. The Environment Agency were also asked to comment on the proposed policy but advised that they did not have sufficient resource to do so. All those that responded either strongly agreed or agreed with the proposals within the draft policy.

There were no proposed changes to the draft policy following public consultation, the reasons for which were set out section 2 of the report. If recommended for approval by the Licensing Committee, the policy, which was attached at Appendix 4 of the report, would go forward for Key Decision by the Leader of the Council with a proposed implementation date of 1 February 2024, taking into consideration any practicalities such as updating Council webpages, application forms and back-office processes.

Members were invited to ask questions of officers. In response to a question regarding fees, officers explained that fees were set on a cost recovery basis and that once the new Policy had been adopted a review of scrap metal licence fees would be carried out and any changes proposed would be brought before the Licensing Committee.  This would most likely happen in February 2024 when the Council would be in a better position to calculate how much it was costing to provide the Service under the new Policy. 

A Member, having expressed concern that there were only 6 responses to the consultation, asked how many scrap metal licence holders there were in Buckinghamshire and how the consultation had been undertaken.    In response officers advised that the Council currently licenced 15 scrap metal dealers, broken down into 8 site licences and 7 mobile collector licences.  Officers explained that they had carried out a comprehensive consultation process following a consultation plan which had been created in conjunction with the Council’s consultation team.  Consultation was principally by way of a survey published on Your Voice Bucks. Links to the survey were sent to all relevant stakeholders, including affected licence holders,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Committee received a report on the draft Charitable Collections Policy. The report provided the feedback following a 6-week public consultation exercise, together with a number of recommended amendments to the original draft Policy.

On 1 February 2023, the Licensing Committee approved a draft Charitable Collections Policy, “Policy”, for consultation.  The Policy set out both the legal framework and a proposed approach to authorising charitable collections in public areas and by way of calling house to house.  Following the meeting on 1 February 2023, a 6-week public consultation exercise took place between 9 May and 20 June 2023. Consultation was principally by way of a survey published on Your Voice Bucks. Links to the survey were sent to Ward Councillors, Town and Parish Councils, Community Boards, umbrella charity organisations (National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Community Impact Bucks, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, Thames Valley Police, Buckinghamshire Council Community Safety and town centre management teams. The survey was also publicised through the Council’s media channels. 55 responses were received by way of the survey and 6 additional written responses were received. Appendix 1 provided a summary of the consultation responses and Appendix 2 contained a transcript of the typed responses from the survey. Appendix 3 contained the 6 additional written submissions.

Section 3 of the report set out the reasons why either amendments were being suggested or no change was being suggested in response to the consultation.  It was noted that in paragraph 3.19 of the report, the recommendation being referred to was in paragraph 3.16 of the report and not paragraph 3.21 as was stated.

In summary, the following amendments to the Policy were being recommended:

• The Policy had been amended to allow applicants to apply for house-to-house collections to take place over a period of up to 28 days during the pre-Christmas period. (see Policy 2.8).
• The Policy has been amended to allow applicants to apply for house-to-house collections to take place until 8pm, with a discretion to apply for later hours during the pre-Christmas period. (see Policy 2.10).
• The Policy had been amended so that street collections are limited to town and village centres and other commercial areas. (see policy 3.24).
• The Policy had been amended to provide clarification that charities can still apply to collect in more than one ward/location under the same licence/permit. (see policy 2.5 and 3.9).

The draft Policy, with these amendments, was attached at Appendix 4 of the report. 

Currently, the Council was able to regulate street collections because of historical adoptions of the model regulations by the legacy Buckinghamshire district councils and the transitional arrangements governing the formation of Buckinghamshire Council. Should the Licensing Committee be minded to agree to the ongoing control of charitable street collections, it was recommended that Full Council be asked to pass a new resolution to adopt the model regulations for Buckinghamshire Council.

Members were invited to ask questions of officers.  In response to a question regarding whether consultees had been informed of the proposed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 6.30pm

It was noted that the date of the next meeting was 7 November 2023 at 6.30pm.