Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 9^th November 2021.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Licensing Sub Committee meetings held on 4^th November 2021 and 6^th December 2021.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 9^th November 2021 were approved as a correct record and would be signed by the Chairman.

The minutes of the Licensing Sub Committee meetings held on 4^th November and 6^th December 2021 were approved as a correct record and would be signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dave Bulmer, Adam Dance, Tony Lock, Kevin Messenger, Andy Soughton and Martin Wale.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (as amended 26 February

2015), 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.

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 questions from members of the public.

Members are asked to note that the next meeting of the Licensing Committee will be held on Tuesday 8^th March at 10.00am.  This will be a virtual meeting using Zoom on-line meeting software.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Licensing Committee was scheduled to be held on Tuesday 8^th March 2022 at 10.00am and would be a virtual meeting using Zoom.

The Lead Specialist – Environment introduced the report which set out the new draft Statement of Licensing Policy.  She explained that under Section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003, the Council must publish a policy in respect of its licensing function and the policy should be reviewed every 5 years.  She advised that the policy had been revised which was mostly in accordance with the latest statutory guidance and that Appendix B to the report set out the detailed changes from the previous policy.  She referred to the key changes which were outlined under 5.12 of the report which related to the removal of the cumulative impact policy, addition of movable structures considerations to Mobile Premises and Temporary Structures, addition of some detailed points to help clarify the matters that should be considered for Temporary Event Notices, additions of further detail to the section on Large scale events, addition of section on Sustainable Event Management and clarification of requirements for committee members under the code of conduct in the section on Administration, Exercise and Delegation of functions.

Members were asked to consider whether they were content for the revised draft Statement of Licensing Policy to go out to consultation as set out in the report.  The consultation period would be for an eight-week period, which was proposed to commence on Monday 24th January 2022.  Any responses to the draft policy would be brought to the Licensing Committee for discussion following the close of the consultation period.  It was noted that a Special meeting of the Licensing Committee may need to be held to fit in with the proposed consultation timescales prior to the Policy being recommended to Full Council for approval.

The Specialist – Environmental Health informed members that an equalities assessment had been undertaken and agreed by the Equalities Officer.

The Chairman thanked the Officers involved in the production of the draft Statement of Licensing Policy.

There were no questions or comments raised by members. 

At the conclusion of the item, Members were content to approve the recommendations outlined in the report.