Agenda item

Report of the Group Director of Services

The Group Director of Services submitted a report (previously circulated) inviting  Members to determine the fees relating to the licensing of Pavement Cafes in light of a further extension to the current temporary pavement licensing measures, until September 2024.

It was reported that Councils are responsible for administering a range of licences and for the majority of these regimes the costs are recovered through fees set by each council and paid by the licence applicant; that Legislation permits the Council to recover all or part of the costs of providing the licensing but does not permit the Council to profit from its fees and charges; and that the setting of fees and registrations had been delegated to this Committee.

Members were informed that pavement café licences were ordinarily issued under the Highways Act 1980; that the Business and Planning Act 2020 introduced a fast track system to assist the hospitality trade in recovering from Covid-19; and that whilst the legislation placed a maximum fee of £100, this committee had approved licences to be issued free of charge.

The report stated that the legislation had been extended to September 2022 due to the second wave of Covid-19; that it was now the intention of the Government to make this Act permanent with an initial decision made to extend to September 2023 and a likely further extension to September 2024. Members were informed that this Committee had agreed, at its meeting on 17 January 2023, that new fees would be charged once the extension had ended in September 2023; and there was an expectation that charges of up to the maximum of £350 would be made after this date.

Members were provided with details of the fee proposal, noting that as funding was no longer available to subsidise the licensing service post-covid, that a proposed maximum fee of £100 be imposed on all pavement café licenses issued under the Business and Planning Act until September 2024.

Members queried the income raised by a fee of £100 and the classification of a pavement café.

RESOLVED – That this General Licensing Committee approves a pavement café licensing fee of £100 be introduced under the Business and Planning Act 2020 until September 2024.