Councillors not keen on increasing alcohol licence fees

SOME councillors say they would be against the idea of upping alcohol license fees as the hospitality industry recovers from the Covid pandemic – while a warning was made that rising energy and fuel costs could harm the sector further.

The issue was raised at a meeting of Shetland’s licensing board on Monday after it reported a deficit of around £1,000 in the last financial year.

Council solicitor Paul Wishart suggested this was a manageable figure, with 2020/21 for example reporting a deficit of nearly £3,000.

The income comes from licence fees, and the expenditure is generally staff costs and overheads.

Wishart said one way of increasing money coming into the board would be to up the amount people pay in licence fees.

Although this was not something up for decision at the meeting, Shetland Central councillor Catherine Hughson said she would be “loathe” to do that while hard-hit businesses emerge from the Covid pandemic.

“It’s not something I personally support,” she said.

Lerwick North and Bressay member Stephen Leask also warned that businesses could be hit again due to the rising energy and fuel costs. “I think we have to be quite sympathetic of that,” he said.

The discussion at the eight-minute meeting took place after the board was presented with a rundown of figures for the 2021/22 financial year.

It showed that there were 148 premises licences in force – up one from the previous year – and 313 personal licences, which was down from 333.

There was an upsurge in occasional licences granted, from 12 to 59, because more events were put on as Covid restrictions were either scaled back or ended.