Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were made.

(Assistant Director of Corporate Support Services (Legal)) To consider the attached report and policy document.

The Committee noted the report on the impending changes to the regulatory regime for controlling scrap metal dealings to be implemented through the provisions of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, and the increased duties and powers which this gave to the Council.

Alison Mitchell, the Assistant Director (Legal) informed the meeting that this came into effect via a Statutory Instrument which required the Council to put it into place by the beginning of October. The draft policy attached to the report had in part been drawn up by the Essex Licensing Association. There was to be two types of licenses one for collections and one for the site. The authority will need to decide on the suitability of the person to hold a licence and not on the premises. In making this decision the authority will have regard to:

• Whether the applicant or any site manager has been convicted of any relevant offence;
• Whether the applicant or any site manager has been the subject of any relevant enforcement action;
• Any previous refusal to issue or renew a scrap metal licence;
• Any previous refusal for an environment permit or registration;
• Any previous revocation of a scrap metal licence; and
• Whether the applicant has demonstrated that there will be adequate procedures to comply with the Act.

The authority would also have the right to inspect their records.

Once an application had been received, the local authority must consult with any other local authority (if an application had been made or licence issued to the same applicant), the Environment Agency and the Police.

The meeting also noted the proposed fees set out in the supplementary report and the tabled sheets on how the figures had been calculated.

Councillor Smith asked if the Town and Parish councils qualified as local authorities to be consulted. Ms Mitchell said that as they were not looking at the site but the person; the Town or Parish Councils would be unlikely to give us the type of information set out in the Act and were not consultees mentioned in the legislation. However, officers could circulate this information to the local Councils for their information. Councillor Angold-Stephens noted that the sites would come under planning regulations.

Councillor Sartin asked if they would like to have separate collector’s licences from each authority’s area that they collected from. Ms Kitts, the Licensing Compliance Officer said that yes, they would. They should have an appropriate badge displayed on their collection vehicle.

Councillor Sartin then asked if they submitted an application would it be down to officer delegation to decide or would it come to the committee. Ms Mitchell replied that if there were no objections then officers would decide, if there were an objection then it wold go to a Sub-Committee.

The Committee then discussed whether or not a householder was responsible for checking if a collector had an appropriate licence. It was noted that if any material was found fly-tipped and the offending material could be traced to a household  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Councillor Morgan noted that a lot of extra meetings were being organised. Could officers send each member a list of what meetings they were scheduled to do in the near future.

AGREED: The Democratic Services Officer to supply a list to each member indicating which meeting they were assigned to.

Councillor Angold-Stephens noted that although there were a lot of extra meetings, it should be noted that this summer the Council had received only half the number of applications than they did last year. However, as they were restricted to hearing only one application per meeting and officers had to notify all residents within a 150 metre radius; this had contributed to the exceptional increase in the number of meetings. However, it was still too early to draw any firm conclusions. There were also concerns about costs such as the cost for the GIS service and for members travelling time.

It was also noted that officers were keeping a note of the numbers of the members of the public who attended these meetings.

The next meeting of the Licensing Committee has been scheduled for 9 October 2013 at 2.00pm in the Council Chamber.

The date of the next meeting was noted.