The Head of Regulatory Services and Community Safety has submitted a report to seek agreement of the licence fees for 2021/22 where the Council has discretion over the level of fee charged.

Recommendation: That the General Purposes Licensing Committee resolves to:

1.    Agree the licence fees and charges for 2022/23 as set out in Appendix 1 and recommend them to Council.

The Head of Regulatory Services and Community Safety had submitted a report to seek agreement of the licence fees for 2022/23 where the Council had discretion over the level of fee charged.

The Business Regulation Team Manager introduced the report. It was proposed that no inflationary increase was made to the 2022/23 fees and charges for Street Trading in order to promote and support local businesses, but small changes to application fees in line with general increases were outlined in the report.

The Business Regulation Team Manager drew the Committee’s attention to the Pavement Licence provisions, which were meant to be a temporary measure to enable businesses to trade outdoors in accordance with previous COVID-19 regulations. He advised that this was a lifeline for many businesses and Oxford City currently had around 100 Pavement Licences.

The current Pavement Licence provisions implemented by the Government would last through to September 2022, but there was no indication of whether the provisions would be extended beyond then. If the provisions were not extended then there would be a requirement to use the Café Licence provisions, but the difference was that planning permission was required alongside a Café Licence and it was a longer drawn out process. In the event that the Pavement Licence provisions were not extended, it was proposed that the Council would offer Café Licences at three prices, taking into account the proposed footprint of the outdoor area. The Business Regulation Team Manager confirmed that the provisions only applied to tables and chairs on a Public Highway and not in a private garden.

In response to a question, the Business Regulation Team Manager advised that the team had not consulted with businesses on the costs and whether they were reflective of the likely income businesses would get from the use of that seating. Members of the Committee were satisfied that the maximum annual charge of £250 outlined in Appendix 1 was not prohibitive to businesses.

The Committee resolved to:

·         Agree the licence fees and charges for 2022/23 as set out in Appendix 1 and recommend them to Council.