Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors C Chapman, T Dean, R Kain, R Moreton, J Priest, L Smetham and J Wray.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with paragraph 2.32 of the Committee Procedural Rules and Appendix 7 to the Rules a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relevant to the work of the Committee.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers.  Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

There were no public speakers.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4 November 2024 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 November 2024 be approved as a correct record.

To receive the minutes of the following meetings:

Licensing Sub-Committee

21 October 2024.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Licensing Sub-Committee held on 21 October 2024 be received.

To consider a report on the fees and charges for Scrap Metal Dealers licenses for the period 1^st April 2025 to 31^st March 2028.

The Committee considered a report regarding the proposed fees for applications for Scrap Metal Dealers licences for the three-year period from 1 April 2025.

In accordance with the provisions of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, the Council was permitted to charge a fee for administering the statutory licensing for scrap metal dealers.  Fees could only be set on a cost recovery basis and a review of the fees had to be undertaken in order to ensure that they reflected the cost of administering the licences.

RESOLVED (Unanimously)

That the following fees be approved in relation to applications for Scrap Metal Dealers licences for the three-year period from 1 April 2025:

·       Site Licence Application – £235.00

·       Collectors Licence Application - £124.00

·       Replacement of a Site Licence - £30.00 (per licence)

·       Additional and replacement Collectors Licence - £35.00 (per licence)

To consider the proposed Regulatory Services and Health Mobile Homes Fees and Charges Policy 2025-2026.

The Committee considered a report regarding the proposed Fees and Charges Policy 2025-2026 for administering the statutory licensing function for protected residential caravan sites (Mobile Homes).

In accordance with The Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, the Council was permitted to charge a fee for administering the statutory licensing function for residential caravan sites.  It was also permitted to set fees for other functions such as maintaining a register of site rules and transferring and amending licences.

The Council was only able to set fees on a ‘cost recovery’ basis, and as part of setting the fees it was required to have a Fees and Charges Policy in place for mobile home sites, which was reviewed annually in order to ensure that the fees reflected the cost of administering the licensing function.

The fees were set using a time monitoring approach together with officer knowledge of the times involved for carrying out various functions.

In response to a question raised in respect of whether the Council does any benchmarking against other local authorities, officers agreed to undertake some comparison work and share their findings with committee members.

RESOLVED (Unanimously) –

That the Regulatory Services and Health Mobile Homes Fees and Charges Policy 2025 - 2026, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved.