Meeting Details

Meeting Summary
Licensing Committee
20 Jul 2022 - 18:00 to 20:00
Occurred
Grand Jury Room
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Please follow this link to follow the meeting live on You Tube:-

https://www.youtube.com/user/ColchesterCBC 

 

If you wish to make representations to the Governance and Audit Committee under the "Have Your Say" provisions at this meeting, please register by e-mailing democratic.services@colchester.gov.uk You will need to provide your name, email address, whether your representation is a general matter or related to an item of business and a copy of the representations you wish to make (maximum of 500 words). 

 

For more information about having your say, please see the guidance at the following page on our website:

http://https//colchester.cmis.uk.com/colchester/HaveYourSay.aspx

  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Part A
1 Welcome and Announcements
The Chairman will welcome members of the public and Councillors and remind everyone to use microphones at all times when they are speaking. The Chairman will also explain action in the event of an emergency, mobile phones switched to silent, audio-recording of the meeting. Councillors who are members of the committee will introduce themselves.
2 Substitutions
Councillors will be asked to say if they are attending on behalf of a Committee member who is absent.
3 Urgent Items
The Chairman will announce if there is any item not on the published agenda which will be considered because it is urgent and will explain the reason for the urgency.
4 Declarations of Interest
Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the agenda about which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the item or participating in any vote upon the item, or any other pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest.
155

Councillor Hogg declared a non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 7, Statement of Licensing Policy for Sex Establishments, by virtue of the fact that he was the holder of a personal licence in respect of a registered charity. 

 

5 Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Councillors will be invited to confirm that the minutes of the meeting held on 1 June are a correct record.
156

RESOLVED that: the minutes of the meeting held on 1 June 2022 be confirmed as a correct record. 

 

pdf Licensing Committee draft Minutes 1 June 2022 (61Kb)
6 Have Your Say! (Hybrid meetings)

Members of the public may make representations to the meeting.  This can be made either in person at the meeting  or by joining the meeting remotely and addressing the Council via Zoom. Each representation may be no longer than three minutes.  Members of the public wishing to address the Council remotely may register their wish to address the meeting by e-mailing democratic.services@colchester.gov.uk by 12.00 noon on the working day before the meeting date.  In addition a written copy of the representation will need to be supplied for use in the event of unforeseen technical difficulties preventing participation at the meeting itself.

 

There is no requirement to pre register for those attending the meeting in person.

7 Statement of Licensing Policy for Sex Establishments
The Statement of Licensing Policy for Sex Establishments was adopted by Committee in November 2013.  We have undertaken a light touch review of this Policy as we are aware that the administrative processes when dealing with applications has changed, as have the number of Sex Establishments in the Borough.  The Policy has been revised to reflect these changes.

The Licensing Act 2003 Policy is due to be reviewed throughout the next 12 months and may have a bearing on this Policy.  As such a full review will be carried out alongside this work and any findings will be brought back to Committee at the appropriate time.
 
157

Jon Ruder, Licensing and Food Safety Manager attended the meeting to present the report and assist the Committee with its enquiries. The Committee hear that Colchester Borough Council (the Council)’s Statement of Licensing Policy for Sex Establishments (the Policy) had been updated to reflect the fact that a lot of the Council’s services were now available online. There had been no other substantive changes made, save for corrections in respect of spelling or grammatical mistakes which had been spotted in the document. The Policy would be considered again in the light of a full review of the Council’s Licensing Policy which was currently being undertaken by Officers.

 

In response to a question from a Committee member, it was confirmed that the Council’s Policy was similar in content and scope to policies adopted by other Local Authorities.

 

A Committee member wondered whether the majority of business activities which would be carried out in accordance with the Policy were now carried out online, and it was confirmed that there was currently only one licensed sex establishment in the borough which was trading, and it could be inferred that online activities may have contributed to a reduction in the number of physical licensed premises. In the past, Colchester had four licensed sexual entertainment premises, two shops and two clubs, however, it was always possible that further applications would be received in the future.

 

The Committee heard that the Policy was maintained under constant review, and no restrictions on the number of licenses which would be issued was proposed at the current time. Such a restriction may be possible in the future, should evidence supporting the need for this be presented.

 

A Committee member pointed out a number of typographical errors in the proposed Policy, and the Committee was assured that these would be corrected prior to the Policy being implemented.

 

It was noted that the Policy stated that each application would be judged on its own merits, however, discretion was permitted if a premises should be sited near to schools, parks, religious centres or other potentially sensitive areas, and the Council would be permitted to consider the character and locality of a proposed site for a sex establishment premises. The Committee was assured that this would allow applications to be subject to a suitable level or scrutiny.

 

A Committee member recalled the operation of a ‘swingers club’ in the borough a number of years ago, which had caused public consternation. At the time it had not been possible for either the Licensing Authority or the Planning Authority to take enforcement action against the club; would the Policy now allow for action to be taken against such a club in the future? Jon Ruder explained to the Committee that was a broad agreement across the Licensing Authorities in the County that such clubs probably did require a licence, and should a similar club become active in the future, its legality would be carefully considered.

 

RESOLVED that: subject to the correction of typographical errors in the document, the proposed Statement of Licensing Policy for Sex Establishments be recommended to Full Council for adoption. 

 

8 Work Programme 2022-23
This report sets out the current Work Programme 2022-2023 for the Licensing Committee. This provides details of the reports that are scheduled for each meeting during the municipal year. Members are asked to note that due to the nature of Licensing work, items on the work programme may be subject to change.
158

Matthew Evans, Democratic Services Officer, introduced the work programme 2022- 2023.

 

RESOLVED that: the contents of the work programme be noted. 

 

9 Exclusion of the Public (not Scrutiny or Executive)
In accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public, including the press, from the meeting so that any items containing exempt information (for example confidential personal, financial or legal advice), in Part B of this agenda (printed on yellow paper) can be decided. (Exempt information is defined in Section 100I and Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972).
Part B

Attendance

Attended - Other Members
Name
No other member attendance information has been recorded for the meeting.
Apologies
NameReason for Sending ApologySubstituted By
Councillor Jeremy Hagon Councillor Barbara Wood
Councillor Patricia Moore Councillor Leigh Tate
Absent
NameReason for AbsenceSubstituted By
No absentee information has been recorded for the meeting.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting
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