Issue - meetings

Further to Minute No. 8 of the meeting of the Licensing and Regulatory Urgent Referrals Committee held on 28 August 2013, the Council considered the report of the Director of Built Environment on the provisions of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, which would be implemented on 1 October 2013, together with the action that needed to be taken by licensing authorities prior to the implementation date.

It was moved by Councillor Kerrigan, seconded by Councillor Robinson and

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the fees as set out in Section 5 of the report in respect of Scrap Metal Dealers Licences be approved and

(2)       approval be given to the amendment of Chapter 7 of the Constitution – Regulatory and Other Committees (Delegations to Regulatory and Non-Executive Committees) as follows:

Licensing and Regulatory Committee:

(i)            To exercise the functions of the Licensing Authority in accordance with the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 ; and

(ii)          To authorise the Licensing and Regulatory Committee to delegate it’s functions under (i) above to Licensing Sub Committees (consisting of 3 Members).

Report of the Director of Built Environment

Further to Minute No. 11 of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee meeting held on 3 June 2013, the Committee considered the Report of the Director of Built Environment on the implementation of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013.

The report was also to be considered by the full Council on 5 September 2013.

The Senior Licensing Officer, Commercial Licensing Unit, presented the report and advised of proposals to give delegated powers to Licensing Sub-Committees and the Director of Built Environment in respect of functions under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, which were listed in paragraph 4.2 of the report.  Approval was also sought for proposed fees to be charged for the process.

The Senior Licensing Officer indicated that since publication of the Committee Report, the Home Office uidance on setting fees had now been released and as a result the figures proposed in Paragraph 5.5 of the report had been revisited to take account of this, in particular, with regard to having to have separate fees for Site and Collector’s Licences.

Details of these revised fees were listed in the Supplementary Committee Report issued on 22 August 2013, which indicated that the Home Office had also confirmed that it would be paying for the Environment Agency national register and Councils would not have to contribute to this via a re-charge.  As such, the previously included estimated re-charge from the Environment Agency for this provision had been removed from the proposed fees.

The proposed revised fees were therefore, as follows:

Site Licence

Grant  - £130

Renewal - £130

Variation - £75

Collector’s Licence

Grant - £95

Renewal - £95

Variation - £75

Arising from discussion, Members raised issues in relation to enforcement and the reaction of the scrap metal, motor vehicle salvage trades and the docks/Peel Holdings, to the revised fees.  The Senior Licensing Officer indicated that enforcement fell largely under the remit of the Police and that the scrap metal and vehicle salvage trades and associated organisations had largely responded positively to the revised fees, which had been expected for some time.

RESOLVED:  That

(1)  Council be recommended to

(2)  the Director of Built Environment be requested to submit an update report to a future meeting of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee.