Report of the Trading Standards & Licensing Operations Manager is attached, marked 6.

Contact: Frances Darling (01743 251715)

Consideration was given to a report of the Trading Standards & Licensing Operations Manager in relation to the Licensing Fees and Charges for 2017 – 2018. (copy attached to the signed minutes). It was explained that a vet fee for new applications for Breeding Establishments had been omitted from the table shown at Appendix A Part 2 and would be included in the report presented to Cabinet and Council.

The Trading Standards & Licensing Operations Manager answered a number of general questions and confirmed that the income from fees and charges and how this was off set against the estimated service costs would be provided to Members as part of the report that would be presented to Committee in relation to the 2018/19 fees and charges.

RESOLVED:

1.            The Committee noted the statutory fees that Shropshire Council was required to charge in respect of the specified licences under the Licensing Act 2003 and the Gambling Act 2005 as set out in Part 1 of Appendix A and agreed that the authority implement these fees (or if subject to statutory amendment, the relevant amended fees) on the 1 April 2017 and instructs the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager to include the fees in the 2017/18 annual fees and charges reports to be presented to Cabinet and Council and further instructed the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager to implement, as appropriate, any other statutory fees that may be brought into force during the 2017/18 financial year and to publish all relevant statutory fees on the licensing pages of the Council’s website as soon as was practicable. 

2.            The Committee agreed that the authority implement, with any necessary modification and with effect from 1 April 2017, the proposed fees as set out in Part 2 of Appendix A, (subject to the inclusion of a vet fee for new applications for breeding establishments) that relate to those licences and licensing related activities where the authority has the discretion to determine the fees and instructs the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager to include the proposed fees in the 2017/18 annual fees and charges reports presented to Cabinet and Council and further instructed the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager to publish the fees, as agreed by Council, on the licensing pages of the Council’s website as soon as was practicable. 

3.(a)    The Committee proposed to vary the fees relevant to driver, hackney carriage, private hire vehicle and operator licences as set out in Part 3 of Appendix A, with any necessary modification, and instructed the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager, in accordance with the provisions of Section 70 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, to publish in the Shropshire Star a notice setting out those fees that it was proposed would be varied and to specify a period from 30 January 2017 to 26 February 2017 (this being not less than 28 days) within which and the manner in which objections to the proposed fees can be made.   

AND

3.(b)    The Committee agreed to implement the proposed variation to the fees on 27^th February 2017, where no objections to the proposed variation in fees were received by 26 February 2017 or if all objections so made were withdrawn by the said date or where objections to the proposed variation to the fees were received by 26 February 2017 and were not withdrawn by the said date, the Committee would consider the objections at a meeting on the 22 March 2017 with a view to setting the date of 1 April 2017 (being a date not later than 2 months after the 27 February 2017) when the proposed variation to the fees would come into force with or without further modification and further instructed the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager to publish the agreed fees on the licensing pages of the Council’s website as soon as is practicable.

4.            The Committee instructed the Trading Standards and Licensing Operations Manager to include the proposed fees as set out in Part 3 of Appendix A, with any necessary modification, to be included in the 2017/18 annual fees and charges reports presented to Cabinet and Council and that in respect of those fees a note is recorded in the said annual reports stating ‘Provisional fees under consultation between 30 January 2017 and 26 February 2017; fees to be confirmed by the Strategic Licensing Committee by 22 March 2017’.