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Contact: Miss Clare Pinnock 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 62 KB

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2023 (Appendix ‘A’).

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2023 were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

2.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J Furey and M Singh.

3.

Declarations of Interest

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

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest, save for any already declared on the public register.

4.

2023 Annual Report on the Licensing Act 2003 pdf icon PDF 129 KB

Minutes:

The Committee received the annual report on matters relating to the Licensing Act 2003.

 

Members reviewed the statistics relating to Licensing as required by the Home Office.  These showed that the number of Premises and Club Premises Licences had remained stable.  The number of Temporary Event Notices (TENs) had increased significantly since the pandemic (199) but were not quite up to their previous levels.  Fewer new premises licences had been issued (8) whereas there were slightly more new personal licences (44) granted in 2022/2023.  Six premises licenses had been surrendered and one revoked.

 

Officers reported that they wished to discourage late TENs because if there was an objection or some detail in the notice was incorrect it meant that an event could not go ahead.

 

A new issue which Members generally supported was the possible introduction of a pre-application charge in response to the significant time Officers were taking with new applicants to submit a correct application in all aspects.  A report would be submitted to the next scheduled meeting in September 2023.

 

Members were advised that the way Pubwatch was organised might be changing to join the North/South configuration; the frequency of meetings was also being considered.  It was hoped this would result in better attendance, and Officers agreed to supply the Committee with a list of non-participating premises so that Members could actively encourage more people to take part and benefit from information sharing.  For example details of people who had been barred from various premises.

 

The Committee was still disappointed that the Government had not yet introduced a national database of personal licence holders.  This would assist if someone’s licence was revoked or surrendered.

 

Officers were thanked for their report which was duly noted.

 

 

5.

Exclusion of Press and Public

Minutes:

There were no confidential or exempt items on the agenda.