Agenda item

Nicholas presented the Mobile Homes Policy which sets out how fees and charges will be administered for inspections and licensing. Failure to comply with this requirement could leave this authority open to legal challenges. This policy is drafted in accordance with the Mobile Homes Act 2013.

Nicholas highlighted an error with the dates on page 5 and will amend these and was happy to take questions on the report.

J Howard referred to page 9, 3.2 – site Licencing fees point 3, if they don’t confirm will they lose their licence.

Nicholas said there are possibilities of prosecution and they serve an improvement notice on the site and it would depend what the non-compliance was. Sites have been inspected and have all been set as low risks for this year and any non-compliance for this year will have until next year to get those issues sorted.

J Howard then referred to 3.2.3 when a problematic site then becomes manageable and how do you react to it.

Nicholas replied that if that was the case then they would take action however sites in the area are good, some issues that they may have may relate to conditions of licensing which they will be enforcing against. The authority is with the site manager/licence holder.

Cllr Bassadone referred to page 3, how many sites are we talking about.

Nicholas confirmed that there are five sites and when they inspect them some are reasonably larger than others and couldn’t specify exactly how big the sites were.

Cllr Bassadone asked if farms where vans are kept are included in this policy.

Nicholas said yes they would be if they have planning permission for those mobile homes to be there, this would only include ones that are lived in.

Cllr Conway asked if there was a list of fines.

Nicholas said it would be impossible to do that; legal action would go to court and it will be the courts that decides.

Cllr Harden arrives at 19:43

Cllr Wyatt-Lowe asked how they operate and how much time is spent operating and how do we know we are not over charging.

Nicholas said the fees have been agreed for 2014/2015. They were estimated at this time as a result of bench marking  with other authorities, next year they will be reflecting on the actual time spent doing it, so if they over charged last year then they will be reflecting that next year as they can’t make a profit.

Cllr Imarni referred back to the question ‘when is a site is deemed unmanageable’, at the moment we don’t have a problem but a policy should be in a position so that we have not left ourselves open. Section 3.2.1, page 9, if this is going to be a policy that is issued, should we not put something in there that says it’s not limited to these points just to protect ourselves if something on this list did ever come up.

Nicholas agreed and confirmed he will add a sentence to this section.

Cllr Mahmood said he couldn’t see any pounds or actual fees in the policy.

Nicholas said fees and charges were set last year and agreed then and have already been approved.

Cllr Mahmood asked if you charge the enforcement time to the individual site or if the cost was shared between the sites.

Nicholas said they will have to look at their costs carrying out the whole activity; therefore they would have to look at their hourly amount that they have spent on that, and that will be reflected in the high risk spectrum. They can’t make a profit so the hourly rate for officers times and the number of hours that they have spent and then that is distributed between sites.

It could be the case that they leave the low risk sites as they are and increase the high risk one but that will be the case to decide once they know how long it takes to inspect and what risks there are so it’s hard to give figures for next year.

If there are significant issues then he expects that to be dealt with via an improvement notice and potentially prosecution, it’s not a fining method it’s a reflection of costs.

Cllr Mahmood asked if the licenses are assigned to a site or the individual.

Nicholas said the licencing is issued to the applicant which is normally the site owner if they left it would have to be because they are selling the site in which case they will be going to committee for variation to the license.

Cllr Mahmood asked questions on p11. 6, incidental use, what is that?

Nicholas said that would be along the line of a van that isn’t permanent, a mobile home or a caravan on their property that isn’t lived in and doesn’t need planning permission then that’s incidental.

Cllr Howard, when you say the licence is for a fixed period is the date displayed on the site or with the owner.

Nicholas said the licence should be displayed on the site notice board; it’s one of the requirements in the licence.

Cllr Mahmood highlighted that the date on the policy is Jan 2015 and elsewhere states 2013, are we slow of the mark with this policy.

Nicholas confirmed that they are behind the reason for this is the Act came out in 2013 detailing the and we could charge from April 2014. The fees and charges starts in October and therefore were set at this time,  but there was no guidance and that came out in December, and it takes a while for the policy to be drafted and go through processes but they have started charging since Jan 2015 that’s why its dated then.

Action: Few minor amendments see above

Outcome: The report was noted.