cabbyman wrote:
I have just received my renewal notification for my driver's badge. The Government require them to renew for 3 years. The cost has gone from £60 for a one year badge to £155 for a 3 year badge.
I believe that a Local Authority is only permitted to recover the cost of licensing. I fail to understand how a 3 year badge can cost 2.5 times more than a one year badge when the same work is involved for renewal and no work is required for the ensuing two years. What are your thoughts?
Can anyone point me towards the legislation governing the charges a Local Authority are permitted to levy for the licensing function, please?
Very difficult assessment to make without a precise cost analysis, and to be fair to councils I doubt if there is such a precise analysis available.
For a start, your point seems to presuppose that all licensing staff do is process applications for licenses, which clearly isn't the case. As Heathcote says, there's enforcement activities and what not, even if this isn't usually visible in the streets. Enquiries from drivers and the like is one similar example that will take up staff time, and won't depend on the amount of badge applications.
Another major factor is that there will be a lot of fixed costs which won't change much (if at all) even if there's less of a workload, such as office costs, heating and lighting etc. And while you might imagine that staff cost could be reduced, this may be easier said than done, particularly if it's a small licensing department with only a handful of staff.
Other activities that won't be affected too much include licensing committee activities and the cost of preparing reports etc.
At the other extreme is grandad's example where the fee was initially the same for the three-year badge as it was for the one-year badge. Of course, that was never going to be sustainable - suddenly a major source of the licensing department's income is reduced by two thirds??
To be honest, if I was you and getting a three-year badge for £155 in an expensive part of the UK like Hampshire, then I'd be celebrating at best, or at worst just grinning and bearing it.
Suspect that at a fee like that if you kick up a stink then it may open up a can of worms that you'd wish you hadn't disturbed.
Let sleeping dogs lie, kind of thing