To confirm and sign as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2021 (Appendix ‘A’).

The Minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2021 were confirmed as a correct record.

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registrable and non-registrable interests in items on the agenda.

There were no Declarations of Interest to record.

The Committee received for information the annual report on matters under the Licensing Act 2003.

Members noted that the Licensing Policy was valid until 2026 and reviewed statistical data.  This showed a slight increase in the number of premises licences (a total of 249), one less club premises certificate, and a significant increase in the number of Temporary Event Notices following the lifting of restrictions regarding Covid.  The number of new Personal Licences had fallen to 21 (with a total of 1,160 across the borough) and 6 premises licences had been surrendered or lapsed.  There were very few variations to premises licences in 2021/2022.

The Committee was also provided with ward based information showing that Egham had slightly more new premises licences in 2021/2022 (4), but that others had also been granted mainly in Englefield Green and Addlestone.  Of those licences surrendered these were split equally between Egham and Chertsey and one each in Lyne and Englefield Green.

Officers advised Members of their pro-active approach to ensuring applicants submitted accurate applications, often offering pre-application advice and engagement, and intelligence led enforcement with other Responsible Authorities.

The benefits of Pubwatch were discussed.  These included sharing information and its members in the trade working together to improve the safety of their premises for the public and their staff.  Unfortunately attendance had been fairly low lately as Pubwatch members reported being very short -staffed.  There were currently 11 people on the Pubwatch banned list, mostly in the south section of the borough.  Officers agreed to advise the Committee of future Pubwatch dates when known for both the north and south of the borough.  Officers also agreed to provide the Committee with a breakdown of the 33 Pubwatch members in terms of public houses and registered clubs

Officers had added a new section to the annual report on incident and crime statistics as recorded by the Police.  These showed a range of issues including different types of assault, public order offences and drug related activity.  Members were concerned to learn that there had been 337 incidents in licensed premises including 90 in public houses.  Officers explained that an ‘incident’ could be any type of event and was not necessarily crime related.  For example a police visit to a premises was recorded as an ’incident.’

At a previous meeting Members had asked for an analysis of the effects of Covid on licensed premises and similar.  With regard to Temporary Event Notices the Committee noted that in order to aid recovery after the pandemic people were allowed to make a total of 20 in 2022/2023.  However, Officers were not aware of any specific cases where a licence had been surrendered owing to the pandemic and the section had continued to work without disruption with staff working from home.

The Committee noted the recent inability for applicants to pay on-line via the Gov.uk website due to the Council’s software being incompatible with the Government’s upgraded payment system.  Officers anticipated this would shortly be resolved.

With regard to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

There were no exempt or confidential items discussed at the meeting.