Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the Licensing Committee held on Tuesday 11^th August 2015, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dave Bulmer and Martin Wale.

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.

The Licensing Officer explained that the Council had to agree a revised Statement of Principles in order to comply with the Gambling Act 2005.  The Gambling Act 2005 required the Council to consult with one or more persons who appeared to the authority to represent the interests of persons carrying on gambling businesses in the authority’s area.  She advised that to ensure that an extensive consultation was carried out 106 organisations and individuals comprising Responsible Authorities, premises licence and permit holders, schools, town and parish councils were directly consulted.

She provided members with a full copy of the responses received in respect of the draft Statement of Principles.  She pointed out that two of the responses circulated had been received since the publication of the report.

The Licensing Officer further explained that the consultation period had commenced on 11^th August and ceased on 2^nd October and that seven replies had been received.  The responses had also been sent to Philip Kolvin, a reputable Barrister and his comments were contained in the agenda report.  Members noted that Philip Kolvin would also provide comments on the two late responses.

The Licensing Officer advised that she had considered the consultation responses received and her comments in response and suggested amendments were contained in the agenda report. 

The Licensing Manager advised that following a number of meetings, Somerset County Council had agreed for the Somerset Local Safeguarding Children Board to become the Responsible Authority to fulfil the role of the body which is competent to advise the Council about the protection of children from harm.  In response to a member question, the Licensing Manager replied that he didn’t envisage the role to be particularly onerous and that Somerset County Council had assured him that they would be able to resource it.  The Licensing Officer commented that she didn’t expect there to be many applications as most came through on a transitional basis.  She explained that their role would also be to engage with the Council over policy issues and feeding back to operators.

During discussion on the report, members made a number of comments which included the following:

·         A member referred to page 42, paragraph 3.5 of the draft Statement of Principles and commented that there were some duplicated points;

·         With reference to one of the points covered in 3.5, the Licensing Manager confirmed that he would seek clarity from the Council’s Equality Officer prior to the report being considered by Full Council.

The Licensing Officer referred members to the comments received from the Gambling Commission which had been circulated at the meeting.  Members confirmed that they were content with the proposed amendments outlined by the Licensing Officer.

With regard to developing the approach to premises risk assessments, the Licensing Manager advised that the Somerset Licensing Officers Group (SLOG) would be discussing the issue with a view to getting more consistency across the county as a whole, however operators would still need to tailor their risk assessments to local policy.  It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

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 and Scrap Metal Dealers.

During the ensuing discussion, the Licensing Enforcement Officer noted the comments of members and responded to questions on points of detail. Members were informed of the following:-

·         There were very few instances of street traders trading without a licence.  Street traders operated by area and were granted consent to trade at a specific location;

·         Scrap metal theft had decreased in the area which was one of the reasons why police resources had moved elsewhere;

·         A scrap metal collector was someone who could travel around and pick up goods i.e. washing machines and take it to a site;

·         A scrap metal collector could not collect outside of South Somerset unless they obtained an appropriate licence.

Members were content to note the report.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Licensing Committee would be held on Tuesday 8th December 2015 at 10.00am at the Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil.