Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes from the last meeting.

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed by the members present and then signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor Bowden.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest

There was no public participation.

The Chairman asked Nathan March to introduce the report.

Nathan March, Licensing Team Leader:

The Aim of the policy is to give guidance to officers and applicants regarding pre applicant advice charges.

Questions:

Councillor Pringle asked if this charges will apply for very simple questions asked by applicants.

N.March confirmed these charges will only apply to more in-depth questions and reviews of application rather than generally questions.

Councillor Bhinder thinks in principle this is a very good idea but would like to ensure clients are made aware that even though the service will be chargeable it will not guarantee the licence is granted, he would also like to see this information online to provide further clarification.

N.March confirm this will be made very clear to applicants and that the information will be available online.

Councillor R.Sutton would like clarification regarding the dangerous wild animal licence.

N.March explained that the “Animal Activities” also known as “Animal Welfare” licence which includes dog and cat boarding and animal breeding and then the “Dangerous Wild Animal Licence” relates to more exotic animals like ostriches, some snakes and spiders etc.

Cllr Allen would like to know if the charges will be in line with other authorities and DBCs planning department charges.

N,March explained this is a new service and the charges have been worked out against DBC officer costs, it isn’t possible to base them on the planning charges as they are very different services however it will be something that needs to be reviewed at a later date.

Councillor Bhinder thinks offering this service to applicants outside the borough would be a mistake at this point until the service is more established, the other Committee Members agree

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations were agreed by the Licensing and Health and Safety Enforcement Committee:

• To include a statement that this service is only available to potential applicants who would need to apply to Dacorum Borough Council for their licence.

• To amend the list of licences that the service is available to, to include animal activities licences, as well as Dangerous Wild Animal licences.

The Chairman asked N.March to introduce the report.

Nathan March, Licensing Team Leader:

In 2013 a new Mobile Homes act came into place, which introduced new powers, including the ability of Councils to charge for certain service connected to these licences, in the past year this service has been passed over to Licensing.

The aim of this policy is to ensure that appropriate fees are charged for relevant types of work connected to   Mobile Home site licences and to ensure that the council is covering its associated costs.

Questions:

Councillor Pringle would like to know if the costs will be based on the size of the site

N.March, the cost is calculated as a flat fee for some parts of the work such as average travel time, and then additional fees are charged depending on the number of units that a site has.

Councillor Pringle would like to know who is responsible for the fees

N.March confirmed the Site owner is responsible for the cost of fees associated with the licence and they are not allowed to pass this cost onto the residents.

Councillor Bhinder is concerned that the rise in cost is substantial with some sites being charged almost double the fee from the previous year.

N.March explains that this is due to previousundercharging by DBC, where the time spent on some of the issues was underestimated, the proposed fees are still unlikely to be at a level of cost recovery, however there is a plan in place to make DBC more effective at dealing with these sites and therefore reducing the cost of regulating against the licences.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The draft policy was accepted for consultation without any recommendations.