Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the Licensing Committee held on Tuesday 8^th April 2014, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Pauline Clarke, Linda Vijeh, William Wallace and the Licensing Manager.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (adopted July 2012), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting. A DPI is defined in The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No. 1464) and Appendix 3 of the Council’s Code of Conduct.  A personal interest is defined in paragraph 2.8 of the Code and a prejudicial interest is defined in paragraph 2.9. In the interests of complete transparency, Members of the County Council, who are not also members of this committee, are encouraged to declare any interests they may have in any matters being discussed even though they may not be under any obligation to do so under any relevant code of conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

a)    Questions/comments from members of the public

This is a chance for members of the public and representatives of Parish/Town Councils to participate in the meeting by asking questions, making comments and raising matters of concern.

There were no members of the public present at the meeting.

The Licensing Officer summarised the agenda report, which informed members of the proposed changes to legislation that the Deregulation Bill is expected to introduce.  She asked members to be mindful of the fact that some of the changes were likely to have an impact on the licensing budget.  She drew members’ attention to the following points:

·         Fees received for each licence were ring-fenced and could not be used to cross-fund other areas;

·         With regard to personal licences, there would be no requirement to provide a current photograph and the Council would receive no fee for processing the applications;

·         With regard to late night refreshment, members would be asked to consider at a later stage whether a number of premises should be taken out of the Licensing Act;

·         With regard to the Community & Ancillary Sellers Notice (CAN), she commented that she had outlined the worst case scenario in the report.  It was highly unlikely that the cost of the CAN would cover the costs involved for the Licensing Service;

·         The proposed changes would also have an effect on the Environmental Protection Team.

During consideration of the item, the Licensing Officer responded to comments and questions raised by members.  Members were informed of the following:

·         At present the Licensing Act fees were set centrally with everyone paying the same throughout the country.  As part of the changes, the Council would be given powers to set its own fees.  There could still be a possibility that some fees could be statutory but this would not be known until the regulations were received.  Any fees set would need to take account of overhead costs;

·         With regard to larger events, the Council would be able to set its fees to cover its costs and could also introduce graded fees.  At present the fees included a flat fee plus an additional amount based on the number of attendees at an event and often didn’t cover the Council’s costs;

·         With regard to the removal of a requirement to report loss or theft, the main issue was in relation to data protection, as there was personal information included on a licence;

·         Until further information was received, it was not known how much money would need to be set aside to pay for the changes proposed by the Deregulation Bill.

At the conclusion of the debate, members were content to approve the recommendations outlined in the report.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer summarised the agenda report, which updated members on the work of the Licensing Enforcement Team and the various issues that they were currently involved with including Taxis, Street Trading, the Carnivals and Scrap Metal Dealers.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer informed members that the Licensing Service had now introduced Knowledge Tests and to date 51 people had taken a test, of which 28 people had passed.  Out of the 28, 10 people had passed second time around.  Overall, the Licensing Enforcement Officer felt that the test had been pitched about right.

In response to questions and comments raised by members on the Knowledge Test, the Licensing Enforcement Officer advised that:

·         Current licence holders had two years to pass the test.  If a person failed three times, they would need to wait six months until they could retake the test.  New drivers had to pass the test before they received their badge;

·         The test had been introduced for all drivers whereas some other authorities had only introduced tests for new drivers.  It was felt that some drivers may find the test daunting, which officers understood and therefore felt that it was unfair to revoke a licence from a person who had failed the test on the first attempt.  If a licence holder had still failed the test after two years, officers would then look at revoking the licence;

·         The timeframe of two years given for licence holders to take a test had been introduced in order to stagger the number of drivers taking a test.  If officers were to introduce a one year timeframe this would cause issues with staffing;

·         The test was very similar to those used by other authorities.  Drivers had to get 75% of questions correct in each category;

·         Due to the introduction of the knowledge test, there had been a sharp decrease from people outside the area applying for a licence.

In response to a member comment regarding Pedlars, members were informed that Pedlars certificates were issued by the Police and valid for one year.  Permit holders could trade across the whole country whereas a street trader licence holder with a licence issued in South Somerset could only operate within South Somerset.

Members were content to note the report.    

Members noted that the next meeting of the Licensing Committee would be held on Tuesday 10^th February 2015 at 10.00am at the Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil.