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Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room 9 - Level 3, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham ME4 4TR. View directions

Contact: Wayne Hemingway, Democratic Services Officer 

Items
No. Item

909.

Record of meeting pdf icon PDF 42 KB

To approve the record of the meeting held on 21 November 2012.

Minutes:

The record of the meeting held on 21 November 2012 was agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct.  

910.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Carr, Adrian Gulvin and Kearney. 

911.

Urgent matters by reason of special circumstances

The Chairman will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

Minutes:

There were none.  

912.

Declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests

A member need only disclose at any meeting the existence of a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) in a matter to be considered at that meeting if that DPI has not been entered on the disclosable pecuniary interests register maintained by the Monitoring Officer.

 

A member disclosing a DPI at a meeting must thereafter notify the Monitoring Officer in writing of that interest within 28 days from the date of disclosure at the meeting.

 

A member may not participate in a discussion of or vote on any matter in which he or she has a DPI (both those already registered and those disclosed at the meeting) and must withdraw from the room during such discussion/vote.

 

Members may choose to voluntarily disclose a DPI at a meeting even if it is registered on the council’s register of disclosable pecuniary interests but there is no legal requirement to do so.

 

In line with the training provided to members by the Monitoring Officer members will also need to consider bias and pre-determination in certain circumstances and whether they have a conflict of interest or should otherwise leave the room for Code reasons. 

Minutes:

There were none.  

913.

Licensing Act 2003 - Review of Council's Statement of Licensing Policy pdf icon PDF 503 KB

The purpose of this report is to ask the committee to consider the comments received following public consultation on the draft Statement of Licensing Policy and to make recommendations to forward to Council on 25 April 2013. 

Minutes:

Discussion:

 

The Licensing and Local Land Charges Manager submitted a report which set out the draft Statement of Licensing Policy, including comments received following public consultation and some minor proposed amendments to the Committee’s terms of reference.

 

She stated that there had been considerable changes in legislation over the last twelve months through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 that have been included in the draft statement for consideration, which was attached at Appendix A to the report. These changes included:

·              Statement of Licensing Policy to be reviewed every five years instead of every three years

·              Abolition of the vicinity test – allowing anyone in the country to send a relevant representation or an application

·              Locally set fees

·              Late night levy

·              Early Morning Alcohol Restriction Orders

·              The Primary Care Trust (soon to be the Medway Clinical Commissioning Group) had become a responsible authority for the notification of an application and being able to respond to it

·              The use of the word “appropriate” instead of “necessary” - amended by S109 Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, introduced with a view to lowering the evidential threshold required for a Licensing Authority to make such decisions which may be harder to challenge on appeal

·              Review of a licence can now be made by a responsible authority or any other person

·              Changes to standard Temporary Event Notices (TENs)

·              Introduction of a late Temporary Event Notice with no hearings and no right of appeal.

 

As part of the review of the Statement of Licensing Policy, the draft documentation had been correctly advertised as part of a six-week consultation.

 

She stated that not all the requests within the responses could be considered, as they did not meet the requirements of the legislation or guidance in respect of licensing. In these cases a short explanation had been provided against each request for inclusion.

The main areas of concern to come out of the consultation related to Temporary Event Notices (TEN) and Cumulative Impact Policies. In respect of Temporary Event Notices, the current legislation under Part 5 of the Licensing Act 2003 sections 98 to 110 allowed for the following: A TEN was a form that was provided to the local Council, the Police and Environmental Health, letting them know about the planned event and she explained the difference between the two types of TEN, namely a standard TEN, which was to be submitted no later than 10 working days before the event to which it related or a late TEN, which was to be submitted not before 9 and not later than 5 working days before the event. It was noted that a TEN was for a relatively small-scale event attracting fewer than 500 people, lasting no more than 168 hours either outdoors or indoors. Any premises could be used for 12 temporary events per year, up to a total maximum of 21 days. The temporary event holder needed to be aged 18 or over.

 

She explained the number of TENs which could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 913.