General Monday morning moan

I have just heard that our local Council is going to charge us for putting things on the pavement outside our shop. This applies to all the shops in the town. £250 per store per year does not seem too much for some big chain store, but in the town where I trade an awful lot of shops are empty so trade is not that good. Only last year the Council was trying to encourage the Cafe Culture. 'Make the town more interesting and welcoming it said'. I guess we will all have to pay this new 'Tax' - where else can I display my larger items like rabbit hutches. In a way I don't object to the new 'tax' that much. Its just the strange thinking behind it. We are a small town with not too many shops. This new 'Tax' will have to be administered. That means probably a Secretary to send out the forms for written permission for a licence. A Licencing Officer to come out and check you are complying with the Licencing instructions and a person to collect the licence money every year. So lets see. That is at least 3 people, maybe 4? the Council need to pay to collect £250 from town Traders. Work out how much it costs to employ 3 to 4 people, how may shops there are and how much is going to be collected and it seems to me to be peanuts. Is is worth the hassle?
And all this extra when we already pay the Council to have our rubbish removed and are not allowed to even take it to the tip ourselves (they charge us there too) on top of large business rates.
Who would be in Business?