A wide range of licensing fees concerning everything from taxis to tattooists are set to go up in Moray.
The new fees covering licences issued by Moray Council will take effect from April 1.
The council says the increases are necessary to cover the cost of operating the system.
The fees should, by law, cover the costs. However the system has, on average, been running at a £30,000 deficit in recent years.
The new fees were confirmed at a special meeting of the licensing committee. Committee chairman Ron Shepherd said: “Committee members recognised that the shortfall would have to be met by increasing, in most cases, the licensing fees – some of them quite substantially.
“Having said that, some of the licence fees will remain the same while in one or two cases there will actually be a decrease.”
Mr Shepherd added that while some licence fees were last reviewed in 2010, others had not been subject to change since the mid-1990s.
The fees were subject to a period of consultation, which ended on January 31 and generated only three responses.
The fees will be subject to final approval by the council’s policy and resources committee when it meets on March 18.
