FACTORING IN FEES REDCAR & CLEVELAND LICENSING FEES TO RISE
Redcar and Cleveland Council’s licensing fees have been hiked following agreement by
coun-
cillors. The fee increases, which range from 5.34% to 38.53%, went out to public consultation with an objection being received on behalf of Boro Taxis describing them as “misconceived”. The fee increases mean that, for example, renewing a PHV licence will now cost £303, rather than the previous £265, while HC renewal goes up from £270 to £309. A fee paid by PH operators after five years goes up from £740 to £1,025, while drivers making variations to their vehicles will have to pay £57 to register them. A report for councillors said that fees could be set with a view to
recovering the costs associated with the issuing and adminis- tration of licences. It also said: “Due to rising costs, particularly with local authority pay awards, licence fees will need to be increased to recover those costs and to
ensure that the taxi
accounts do not fall into a deficit.” In a letter to the council’s licensing team, a licensing consultant acting on behalf of Boro Taxis, claimed the time it took to process licences in Redcar and Cleveland were generally “50-100% more” than those in Middlesbrough. The letter also complained about a disproportionate amount of licensing officer time being taken up by “general activities”. It added: “If the council had made efficiency
savings like other Tees Valley councils, fees would be coming down and the licensing service functioning more efficiently. “The council is respectfully asked to abandon this misconceived fee increase, review the service to make efficiencies and only then to review fees, hopefully following the lead of other councils to reduce fees.” Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Philip Thomson, a member of the council’s regulatory committee, said: “It was indicated that without this there may be a deficit in the departmental budget,” adding that he alone on the committee had abstained in response to a motion to increase the fees with remaining members agreeing they could be put in place.
TWO POWYS LICENCE FEES TO RISE, ONE TO DROP
Two types of taxi licence fees are set to rise in Powys next year, while one is set to drop. Councillors voted on the proposals at the Powys County Council Planning, Licensing & Rights of Way committee on November 23. The potential income will be worth an extra £4,600, which equates to a rise of 3.8 per cent. A report said: “The number of current licences has increased in the last two years but has not recovered to pre Covid-19 levels.” Fees were
calculated using a
“toolkit” devised by the All-Wales Licensing Expert Panel with assis- tance from the council’s finance team with fees from neigh-bouring councils used as comparisons. • On three-year licences, Powys proposed charging £284 which ranks it third of 13. Of the 12 other authorities, Ceredigion charges
PHTM DECEMBER 2023
£330 and Torfaen CBC £365. Carmarthenshire County Council charges £137 and Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC chargeS £138.
•On the five-year PH operator licences, Powys proposed a new fee of £355 which places it eighth of 12 authorities. Merthyr Tydfil CBC charges £115, while Ceredigion did not provide information for this licence. Monmouthshire tops the scale with £837. The report said: “It must be remembered that it is difficult to make comparisons as fees will be specific to local staffing and on- costs, they also factor in the number of licences administered by the authority, both these can vary greatly between authorities.” The report adds some councils do their own “in-house” vehicle testing at council garages which adds to
their costs. It said: “In Powys we don’t carry out in-house garage checks, we rely on a recent MOT.” The new fees are now set to go out to public consultation and if there are no objections, will be approved and come into force in April 2024. The fees for 2024/2025 not including DBS checks are: HC/PH (1 year): £150 going up from £146 this year. Driver licence (3 years): £284 up from £270.50 this year. PH operators (5 years): £355 down from £358 this year. The current number of licences are: Driver licences – 475, down from 516 in 2019/2020. PH operators – 67, down from 69 in 2019/2020. PH and HC vehicles – 408, down from 429 in 2019/2020.
41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
