Licensing Committee - 10 February 2021

NOTICE AND AGENDA

For a virtual/remote meeting of the Licensing Committee to be held on 10 February 2021 to commence following the conclusion of the virtual/remote Regulatory Services Committee meeting which starts at 7.30pm.

Members of the Licensing Committee:-

Councillors:

Martin Trevett (Chair)

Steve Drury (Vice Chair)

Donna Duncan

Stephen Cox

Joy Mann

Shanti Maru

Debbie Morris

Roger Seabourne

Dominic Sokalski

Alex Turner

Kate Turner

Joanne Wagstaffe, Chief Executive

2 February 2021

(The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 made under the Coronavirus Act 2020 enable Council/Committee meetings to be held in a virtual format and enables remote attendance.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm and will be virtual/remote meeting in that it will be conducted at no specific location and all participants are at various locations, communicating via audio and online.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public to its discussion on Part I agenda items at Committee meetings.  Contributions will be limited to one person speaking for and one against each item for not more than three minutes. Please note that in the event of registering your interest to speak on an agenda item but not taking up that right because the item is deferred, you will automatically be given the right to speak on that item at the next meeting of the Committee.  Details of the procedure are provided below:

Members of the public wishing to speak will be entitled to register and identify which Part I report they wish to speak on from the published agenda for the remote meeting.  Those who wish to register to speak must do so by notifying the Committee Team by e-mail 48 hours before the meeting. The first 2 people to register (1 for and 1 against) will be sent a link so that they can join the meeting to exercise that right.  This will also allow the Committee Team to prepare the speaker sheet in advance of the remote meeting to forward to the Chair of the meeting.

In accordance with The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 any matters considered under Part 1 business only of the meeting may be filmed, recorded, photographed, broadcast or reported via social media by any person.

Recording and reporting the Council's meetings is subject to the law and it is the responsibility of those doing the recording and reporting to ensure compliance.  This will include the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and the laws of libel and defamation

Please note that the meeting is being held virtually. The business of the meeting will be live streamed at: – (Link archived)

The livestream link provided above is being used for this virtual/remote meeting Licensing Committee meeting which follows the conclusion of the virtual/remote Regulatory Services Committee meeting which starts at 7.30pm

The virtual/remote committee meeting protocol is provided below:

1.  APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.  MINUTES

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Licensing Committee meeting held on 2 December 2020 and the Extraordinary meeting held on 22 December 2020.

3.  ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Items of other business notified under Council Procedure Rule 30 to be announced, together with the special circumstances that justify their consideration as a matter of urgency.  The Chairman to rule on the admission of such items.

4.  DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

To receive any declarations of interest.

5.  LICENSING ACT 2003 – STATEMENT OF LICENSING POLICY 2021-2026

The Licensing Act 2003 (as amended) (“the 2003 Act”) requires that all licensing authorities should issue a Statement of Licensing Policy and keep it under review every 5 years, making revisions to it, at such times, as it considers appropriate.

The Licensing Authority’s Statement of Licensing Policy (“the Policy”) was initially agreed on 14 December 2010 (for 2011-2016) and then reviewed and re-published in its updated form on 7 January 2016 (for 2016-2021). The previous review in 2015/2016 took into account a number of changes to the Act and revised guidance from the Home Office issued under section 182 of the Act (highlighted later within the report). The current Policy is attached at Appendix A.

On 2 December 2020 a report informed Members of the Licensing Committee that due to limited department resources coupled with workload pressures and the Coronavirus pandemic, Officers had not been able to complete the review and undertake the necessary public consultation in time for its adoption before the current policy expires on 7 January 2021 (Appendix B).

At this December Committee Members agreed to continue to adopt the current Policy while following an agreed timetable (referred to as ‘timescale for implementation’) up until 18 May to co-inside with Annual Council, measures which sought to treat the identified risk of a legal challenge.

Following the December Committee, Officers agreed that a quicker timescale for implementation was possible and this was reflected in the amended recommendation at Full Council on 8 December 2020 (see Appendix C).

Officers completed a review in accordance with the 2003 Act taking into account latest guidance and other relevant considerations. At the Extraordinary Licensing Committee on 22 December 2020, Members agreed to minor amendments to the draft Policy and a public consultation. Appendix D provides a draft of the proposed consultation document with all proposed changes incorporated, subject to approval.

From 23 December 2020 Officers commenced a 6 week public consultation which expires on 3 February 2021.

6.  WORK PROGRAMME

To consider and made any necessary changes to the Committee’s work programme.

7.  OTHER BUSINESS - if approved under item 3 above.

8.  EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

If confidential business is approved under item 3, it will also be necessary to specify the class of exempt or confidential information in the additional item(s) and a resolution to be passed in the following terms:-

“that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined under paragraphs (1-7) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.  It has been decided by the Council that in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

1.  OTHER BUSINESS – if approved under item 3 above

General Enquiries: Please contact the Committee Team at  committeeteam@threerivers.gov.uk