Agenda item

To consider the Public Protection Partnership’s Fees and Charges which had been proposed by the Joint Public Protection Committee at its meeting on the 05 October 2022. 

Moira Fraser introduced the report on Fees and Charges 2023/24. It was proposed within the report to increase the discretionary element of the fees and charges by circa 8.5%. All fees were set on a full cost recovery basis which had meant that for the first time in three years the hourly rate had increased from £59 to £64. All fees were calculated using the time taken multiplied by the hourly rate.

The Statutory Fees were marked with Pale Gold and Class B Discretionary Fees were headed with blue text in Appendix A of the report.

The fees across both authorities had been standardised and had retained the additional options around street trading consents that had been agreed the previous year.

The Committee did however request that four fees were revisited. Officers explored this and proposed the following:

1.     The change of address fee for taxi licences be set at £11.50.

2.     In terms of Ice Cream Vans it was the intention for the BFC fees to be aligned with those in West Berks over the next two years. There were currently three ice cream van licences in Bracknell.

3.     Knowledge Test fee was only payable if a driver had to resit the test as it was included in the initial fee otherwise. Proposals around the fees for testing would be included in the Annual report to committee in June 2023 ahead of the next budget setting cycle. The proposals were likely to include changes in respect of the removal of geographical testing and revisions to the way tests were conducted.

4.     DBS fee would comprise £38 government fee plus half hour admin fee so a total of £70, a reduction from £79 this year.

Following questions to officers, the following points were noted:

·       In response to a question raising concern on the increase in fees it was noted that the increase over the last five years had been very minimal. For instance, the vehicle license fee was only £6 more than what it was in 2019/20. Moreover, it was noted the hourly rate had not increased for the previous three years and was only being increased this year due to an increase in costs.

·       It was explained West Berkshire Council did not issue home-to-school transport licenses, but BFC did. The reason BFC intended to keep the home-to-school transport licenses was because it was more cost efficient.

RECOMMENDED to the Executive and Council that

1          Save for the private hire operator, and hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licence fees, the 2023/24 fees and charges detailed in Appendix A of the report be approved for public consultation.

2          The charges for operators and hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licence fees be subject to a twenty eight day statutory consultation period from 9 November 2022 to 7 December 2022.

3          A public notice pertaining to the hackney carriage and private hire vehicles and private hire operator’s fees be placed in the Bracknell News.

4          A consultation letter be posted to all hackney carriage and private hire vehicle owners and private hire operators in the Borough and that a copy of the consultation be posted on the Public Protection Partnership website and at Time Square.

5          If no objections were received, the charges for operators and vehicle licence fees be included in the February 2023 Executive and Council papers for approval; or if objections are received, they be considered by the Licensing and Safety Committee at its meeting on 2 February 2023 and any changes be recommended to full Council for approval.