Meeting Details

Meeting Summary
Licensing Committee
14 Dec 2016 - 18:00 to 20:00
Occurred
Grand Jury Room
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  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Part A
1 Welcome and Announcements

a)     The Chairman to welcome members of the public and Councillors and to remind all speakers of the requirement for microphones to be used at all times.

(b)     At the Chairman's discretion, to announce information on:

  • action in the event of an emergency;
  • mobile phones switched to silent;
  • the audio-recording of meetings;
  • location of toilets;
  • introduction of members of the meeting.
2 Substitutions

Members may arrange for a substitute councillor to attend a meeting on their behalf, subject to prior notice being given. The attendance of substitute councillors must be recorded.

3 Urgent Items

To announce any items not on the agenda which the Chairman has agreed to consider because they are urgent, to give reasons for the urgency and to indicate where in the order of business the item will be considered.

4 Declarations of Interest

The Chairman to invite Councillors to declare individually any interests they may have in the items on the agenda. Councillors should consult Meetings General Procedure Rule 7 for full guidance on the registration and declaration of interests. However Councillors may wish to note the following:- 

  • Where a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest, other pecuniary interest or a non-pecuniary interest in any business of the authority and he/she is present at a meeting of the authority at which the business is considered, the Councillor must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest, whether or not such interest is registered on his/her register of Interests or if he/she has made a pending notification.  
     
  • If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at a meeting, he/she must not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter at the meeting. The Councillor must withdraw from the room where the meeting is being held unless he/she has received a dispensation from the Monitoring Officer.
     
  • Where a Councillor has another pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at a meeting and where the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the Councillor’s judgement of the public interest, the Councillor must disclose the existence and nature of the interest and withdraw from the room where the meeting is being held unless he/she has received a dispensation from the Monitoring Officer.
     
  • Failure to comply with the arrangements regarding disclosable pecuniary interests without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence, with a penalty of up to £5,000 and disqualification from office for up to 5 years.
5 Minutes
To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 2016
13
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.
pdf 19 October 2016 minutes (61Kb)
6 Have Your Say!
a) The Chairman to invite members of the public to indicate if they wish to speak or present a petition at this meeting – either on an item on the agenda or on a general matter relating to the terms of reference of the Committee/Panel not on this agenda. You should indicate your wish to speak at this point if your name has not been noted by Council staff.

(b) The Chairman to invite contributions from members of the public who wish to Have Your Say! on a general matter relating to the terms of reference of the Committee/Panel not on this agenda.
7 Member Training Review
See report from Head of Professional Services
14
The Committee considered a report by the Head of Professional Services requesting that the Committee consider changes to the Member Development Programme for Licensing Committee to ensure it meets the needs of members and the operational needs of the service whilst being provided as soon as possible.  

Sarah White, Licensing Officer, introduced the report and highlighted the issues that had arisen in respect of the member development programme for the Licensing Committee as set out in the Appendix to the Head of Professional Services report.

In discussion, the Committee raised the following issues:- 

• Whether there was scope to condense the training offered to members.   Given that licensing training was very intense and time consuming, was there the possibility of looking at a one full day of training, with the possibility of this being scheduled for a weekend day? Officers advised that it would be very difficult to find an external trainer who would be willing to provide training on a weekend.
• Members stressed the need for training dates to be circulated to members as soon as they were available. 
• The requirement for Councillors to observe two Hackney Carriage and two Licensing Sub-Committee hearings can be problematic for some Councillors due to work commitments and also the unpredictable nature of hearings. This meant that it was difficult for members of the Committee to become fully trained, and as a result the hearings in the current Municipal Year had been considered by a small group of members. Therefore the Committee agreed to reduce the requirement for observation to one Hackney carriage and one Licensing Sub-Committee hearing.  Members agreed that were would be benefit in using recordings or mock hearings for training purposes. 
• Some of the difficulties in member availability for Licensing Sub Committee hearings could be addressed by holding some of the more straightforward, and therefore shorter, meetings in the evening.  
• The rota system for empanelling of members be re-introduced for Sub-Committee and Hackney Carriage hearings. The requirements of the Licensing Act 2003 meant that  it was not possible to give more than 2-3 week’s notice and it was acknowledged that this presented difficulties for Councillors.  It was therefore considered that it would be better to return to the rota system and for the dates of hearings to be given in advance, as it is easier to cancel dates rather than add them in. 
• It was suggested that there could be some merit in looking at branding the training or presenting it as a qualification in order to demonstrate its value.

The Committee asked that officers consider the views expressed and ensure that they were taken into account in preparing a training programme for future municipal years so that members appointed to the Committee were quickly able to take on the full duties of a member of the Licensing Committee.

The Committee felt very strongly that the political groups needed to be aware of the training requirements for the Licensing Committee and the current difficulties in scheduling members for meetings so this could be taken into consideration when making nominations to the Committee in future.  It was important that members of the Committee raised these issues within their political groups 


RESOLVED that:-

(a) Officers consider the views expressed and ensure that they were taken into account in preparing a training programme for future municipal years so that members appointed to the Committee were quickly able to take on the full duties of a member of the Licensing Committee.

(b) The Member Development Programme for the Licensing Committee be amended so that the number of observations required for training purposes be reduced to 1 for Hackney/Carriage appeals and 1 for Licensing Sub-Committee hearings with immediate effect.

(c) The rota system for empaneling of members be re-introduced for Sub-Committee and Hackney Carriage hearings.
 
8 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 Philip Oxford  
Absent
NameReason for AbsenceSubstituted By
Councillor Dave Harris Councillor Rosalind Scott

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
Councillor Mike Hogg14Councillor Hogg (in respect of the fact that he was the premises licence holder of the Oak Tree Centre) declared his non-pecuniary interest in the following item pursuant to the provisions of Meetings General Procedure 7(5).Non-PecuniaryDeclaration made

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