Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Panel noted there were no substitute members.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

No declarations of interest were made.

To agree the notes of the 23 October 2012 meeting.

The notes of the previous meeting held on 23 October 2012 were agreed.

To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director (Legal), Alison Mitchell tabled a statistical report updating the one in the agenda.

The Panel noted that most local authorities considered Premises licence applications separately from other applications. The report split the district up into three areas, West, South and East for ease of consideration. The Licensing team divided the district into these three areas with individual officers responsible for one area each. The areas are based on the levels of work generated and are not an equal geographical split. The majority of applications were in the South, which was the smallest of the geographical regions, but generated the most work. This locale was also the most controversial as it was a mixture of residential and commercial in close proximity. The rural areas were not as intensely used.

It was noted that:

• If the Panel were minded to hold hearings in separate areas then the meetings would have to double;
• Evening meetings should ideally only deal with one premises licence case, as they tend to take time and should ideally be finished on the same night;
• Adjourned meetings should continue the next day, this would also depend on the availability of rooms for the next day;
• It was suggested that an evening meeting should start at 6.30pm to give it a good chance of finishing that night;
• Other local authorities tended to hold the serious premises applications that were likely to take a long time during the day;
• However, members were concerned that this went against why this Task and Finish Panel was convened in the first place, to enable local working residents and ward members to attend evening meetings;
• Serious (long) applications only tended to happen occasionally, there had only been two in the last three years;
• Reviews came in three parts, if closed down immediately by a responsible authority, an initial review had to be held within 48 hours to confirm (or not) the closure. After this a full review hearing must be held with in 21 days which may be followed up by another, appeals meeting;
• These reviews were a lot like court proceedings;
• Councillor Philip suggested that these bigger cases should perhaps be started at 3pm; and
• There were also the more numerous non-urgent, standard reviews.

Councillor Watson noted that each party must be given an equal amount of time to speak and given the number of objectors this could last a long while. She asked if each speaker at a review could be given a set time to speak. She was told that it was not that practical as the applicant may get 10 minutes but then if there were 10 objectors they would get 100 minutes, not an equitable arrangement and has the perception of being very unfair and would probably open us up to an appeal. It should also be remembered that each speaker was open to cross questioning by the other side on the points they had raised.

Councillor Angold-Stephens had worked out that approximately 3 to 4 meetings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To consider a date for the next meeting.

It was suggested that the next meeting be held on Thursday, 24 January 2013. The Democratic Services Officer would check the calendar of meetings and confirm by email to the members if this was possible.