Agenda and minutes

(Head of Research and Democratic Services) To declare interests in any item on this agenda.

None declared.

Copies of the minutes of the sub committee meetings will be available for the relevant chairmen to sign off.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting from previous Licensing Sub-Committees be taken as read and signed by the Chairmen as a correct record. Namely the meetings held on:

28^th April 2005

02^nd June 2005

23^rd June 2005

21^st July 2005

18^th August 2005

It was agreed that all draft minutes be circulated to the relevant Chairmen for agreement as soon as possible after they have been written.

Under the Licensing Act 2003 officers are required to report on the numbers of applications received and the determinations of those applications.  In order that the committee receives the most up to date data, figures will be tabled.  The data will be reported for the following categories:

Premises Licence applications

Numbers of applications expected (based on figures supplied by the Magistrates Court);

Numbers of applications received;

Number of applications granted under delegated authority by officers;

Number of applications for variation considered by sub-committee;

Number of applications granted (subject to conditions);

Number of applications refused;

Number of appeals to Magistrates Court.

Personal Licence applications

Numbers of applications expected (based on figures supplied by the Magistrates Court);

Numbers of applications received;

Number of applications granted under delegated authority by officers;

Number of applications for variation considered by sub-committee;

Number of applications refused;

Number of appeals to Magistrates Court.

The Environmental Health Manager tabled a sheet detailing the number of Premises Licence and Personal Licence applications handled under the new Licensing regime.

In particular the meeting noted that:

• two applications had been refused;
• there were three appeals to the Magistrates Court; and
• there were five outstanding premises applications.

It was noted that the number of applications were generally as expected.

Members are asked to review the proceedings of the Licensing Sub-Committee meetings held so far and identify any problems of procedure, policy and housekeeping that may have adversely affected the running of the meetings.

Officers feel that in general the introduction of the new licensing regime has been a success.  We have received no complaints and indeed two major brewery Chains and the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) have complemented us on our service and policy. The views of committee members on the progress so far would also be welcome.

The meeting noted the complement paid to EFDC Licensing services and its’ policies by the British Institute of Innkeeping.

The committee agreed that the arrangements had been working well so far but would like future meetings to be held exclusively (when available) in the Council Chamber. They discussed the possible health and safety considerations involved in holding meeting in the chamber and the ways in which the chairman could make the meeting feel more informal by putting the applicants and objectors at their ease.

The chairman thought it would be useful if the cleared minutes from the sub-committees were copied to him for consistency sake. It was noted that the minutes would also be published on the web for all the committee members to refer to. There were also the officers who attend all of the meeting and who could advise on any perceived inconsistencies.

It was asked if the form could be made simpler but it was noted that it was very much a work in progress and constrained to some extent by government guidelines.

            RESOLVED:

1.            That the sub-committee should hold their meeting in the Council Chamber whenever possible.

2.                  That all minutes once agreed should be copied to the chairman of the Licensing Committee for consistency.

A number of meetings of the Licensing Sub-committee have now taken place.  Over the course of these meetings officers have produced the agenda in a number of different ways in order to determine the most appropriate approach.  Consideration was given to the need to provide Members, Responsible Authorities and Interested Parties with sufficient information, balanced against the production of large and wasteful agendas.

The current agenda structure consists of an agenda document listing individual applications with an indication of representations received together with a report “bundle” which has a copy of the application form and copies of all representations received.

Members are asked to endorse the current approach.

The committee discussed the need for all the background papers currently sent out with the agenda. It was agreed that when some of the forms are left uncompleted and are blank they should be stripped out of the pack to reduce the amount paper circulated.

It was thought helpful that a plan of the area of the premises concerned should also be attached to the bundle; the standard OS scale of 1/1250 was thought to be appropriate. The map should only show the application premise. The committee noted that government regulations disapproved of committee members visiting the premise of applicants, but that should not deter them from driving past to ascertain its’ location and situation if they felt they needed to.

Also, it would be helpful if the applications in the bundle were separated from each other by a front sheet.

The committee would like ward members reminded that they cannot make any representations to a sub-committee in their capacity as a ward councillor, but can only do so if they are asked to represent an interested party, such as local residents.

The committee were reminded that they should not inform their constituents that an application was coming up at a meeting – “they should not go looking for objectors”.

As each application contains plans of the premise concerned the committee decided that they would like the plans to be displayed in the members room before the start of the meeting for their information.

            RESOLVED:

1.            That the information bundle should only contain forms that have actually been filled in, pages that have nothing on them should be left out.

2.            The applications should be separated from each other by a front sheet.

3.            A map showing the area of the application premise should be included with the pack. The map should be of a 1/1250 scale, clearly marking out the premise concerned.

4.            A reminder of ward councillors rights and constraints under the Licensing Act to be put into the Members Bulletin.

5.                  That the plan of the premise should be on display in the members room before the start of the meeting for their information.

To date no representations have been received from the Police or Fire Authorities with regard to either premises or personal licences.  Members are requested to consider this situation and to give guidance to officers as to any action required.

The committee voiced their concern that the Police or Fire Authority had not made any representations (except once) to the sub committee. It was established at the Licensing Officers Forum that local authorities all over Essex were experiencing the same thing.

The Environmental Heath Manager did make it clear to the meeting that the Police and Fire Authorities were consulted on all applications and that they did in fact acknowledge receipt. They would only reply formally if they wished to object, so they were not ignoring us but were just not formally making any representations on applications thus far. The committee would like some figures on the number of times that these authorities had made any representations at other councils so that they could get some idea of the frequency of the representations made. It was noted that members should not ask the Police for comments as that would be considered as “drumming up” representations and against the Licensing Act.

The committee also discussed:

• representations on noise that seem few and far between. It was noted that sometimes the Environmental Health Officers came to last minute compromises with applicants before a meeting. It was hoped that they would inform the meeting what these compromises were;
• if Parish Councils were notified about applications? They were told that they were not as they were not considered by the Act to be responsible authorities, nor is Building Control.

            RESOLVED:

1.                  That officers bring up the matter of Police/Fire Authority representation at their next Licensing Officers Forum; and

2.                  that officers try and find out the frequency of representations made by the Police/Fire Authorities to other councils.

Officers are receiving an increasing number of applications for an exemption from displaying a licence plate on a private hire vehicle.

The primary reason for the application appears to be the desire to provide a chauffeur service to celebrities and VIP’s.  The contention is that such customers will not use the applicant if a plate is displayed on the vehicle.

The vehicles involved tend to be high range prestige cars.  Applicants often present the sub-committee with letters of support form agencies willing to use their services only if a plate exemption is granted.

It has been noted that there has been some inconsistencies in the granting or otherwise of these applications.

It may be that Members wish to delegate these decisions to officers or it may be that they wish to continue deciding on these applications at sub-committee.  In either case it is suggested that a clear policy is needed to ensure a consistent approach.  Such a policy would need to consider (amongst other things) the type of vehicle, the nature of the work undertaken, the exclusivity of that type of work, the need for a contract to exist,the requirement for an identification mark of some sort, etc.

The committee was asked if they wished to continue deciding on cases asking for the exemption from displaying a licence plate on a private hire vehicle at sub-committees or to delegate these decisions to officers. In either case a clear policy would be needed to ensure a consistent approach.

After some debate it was decided that the decision on exemption from displaying a licence plate on a private hire vehicle should be delegated down to officer level. It was also decided that officers should compile draft criteria that would have to be taken into consideration when deciding whether to grant or not, an exemption. The officer should consider:

• Evidence of work;
• Evidence of a job;
• Evidence of some indication that it is private hire vehicle;
• Consideration some type of identification to be included on the vehicle;
• Not to concentrate on the type of vehicle concerned but on the type of work they will be doing; and
• Proof that they would be working for an established firm.

The draft criteria should be drawn up and circulated to members of the committee for consideration at the next full Licensing Committee meeting in April 2006.

            RESOLVED:

1.            That applications for an exemption from displaying a licence plate on a private hire vehicle be delegated to officers; and

2.                  that officers draw up draft criteria for a policy on the consideration of the exemption for displaying a licence plate on a private hire vehicle for consideration by members at the next Licensing Committee meeting.

Members are asked to review the need for any further training.  The Gambling Act 2005 received Royal assent this year and is thought to come into force in 2006/07, training for this will be provided nearer its introduction.

It was noted that any new members would get training in the Act and that any other member would be welcome to come along to these courses as a refresher.

With the Gambling Act coming into force in 2006/07 appropriate training would be provided nearer the time.

The introduction of the Licensing Act 2003 will be fully complete on the 24^th November 2005 (the second appointed day) it is expected that the number of meetings of the sub-committees will substantially reduce after that. 

Following the second appointed day meetings will be called to consider contested new  premises and personal licence application, contested transfers and the usual public hire related matters.  Officers envisage that no more than one meeting of the sub-committee will be called each month.  This should mean that in an ideal world individual members will only have to sit on two or three sub-committees per year.

Noted that:

• 24^th November would be the effective day the licences come into force and from then on the workload for the committee would fall noticeably.
• We had already gone through the peak.
• They would all be up for renewal again in ten years time.
• The next major things to come up would be any new applications, variations and any review of premises that are requested.

The chairman wanted to record the thanks of the members of the committee to all the officers who had steered the sub-committees through this new Licensing Act.

The chairman also extended his thanks to all the members for their hard work.

1.                              A draft protocol by Essex County Council (ECC) was tabled by the Environmental Health Manager on joint working between ECC and the local Licensing Authorities. This was a protocol to protect children from harm at all licensed premises. The members were unsure about the part of the protocol that asked for the passing of information of any breaches of licensed premises with regards to children, to ECC through the committee. It was thought that the protocol should refer to the Local Authority and not the Licensing Committee, but subject to this the members were content for the chairman to sign up to this.

2.                              The need for Temporary Event Notices after 24 November was queried. The Senior Licensing Officer said that she had just received the relevant forms and would be circulating guidance on this shortly.

3.                              Medical evidence was sometimes included in taxi applications – is it possible to have them on pinks before the meeting? There were a lot of restrictions placed on the use of this type of information but specialist advice would be taken. A suggestion was that the applicant could be asked to sign a consent form agreeing the release of the information.

The calendar for the municipal year provides for a meeting of this Committee on 20 April 2006.

The committee noted the date of the next meeting, 20 April 2006. They agreed that a 2pm start would be better for all of them.