Alfresco Policy
Meeting: 18/09/2012 - Environment and Prosperity Scrutiny Committee (Item 44)
44 Alfresco Policy - Progress Update 
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To give consideration to proposed changes to the Alfresco Policy
Minutes:
The Committee received a report providing an update on the Council’s Alfresco Policy. The Service Leader for Cheshire East Highways attended the meeting and gave an overview of Alfresco Policy and the changes that were being proposed to the charging structure.
Feedback from traders suggested that the current charging regime did not reflect the needs of all traders and in some cases prohibited business growth. It was hoped that a revised charging regime would address the concerns of traders and make the scheme more attractive to all businesses. The introduction of 6 month licenses was designed to reduce the cost for small businesses that wished to take advantage of good weather during the summer whilst maintaining the 12 month licenses allow the larger retailers to operate alfresco facilities all year round. The six month license was for a continuous time period and could not be applied intermittently (i.e. 2 separate 3 month periods or every other week for 12 months).
The Committee was pleased that consideration had been given to providing a more attractive charging regime for smaller businesses. Members wanted to be assured that the new regime did not result in an overall cost to the Council and requested the financial information to show that the Council still recovered its costs. The possibility of charging large retailers more based on the increased income they were able to generate from the additional space provided by the Council was suggested by Members. This would not be possible as legislation only allowed the Council to recover its costs from the licenses and did not allow the generation of surplus revenue.
RESOLVED:
(a)
That the Progress report be noted.
(b)
That the Committee support the revised charging regime.
(c) That the accounting figures for the revenue and cost of providing alfresco licenses be shared with the Committee to show that the new charging regime isn’t resulting in an overall cost to the Council.