Agenda and minutes

To approve the record of the meeting held on 22 July 2014.

The record of the meeting of the Committee held on 22 July 2014 was agreed as correct and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs Diane Chambers, Griffin, Harriott and Kearney.

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

There were none. 

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.

Members should also ensure they disclose any other interests which may give rise to a conflict under the council’s code of conduct.

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. 

Disclosable pecuniary interests

There were none.

Other interests

There were none.

The purpose of the report is to enable Medway Police to present their annual report in respect of licensing compliance and enforcement to the Licensing and Safety Committee and for Members to ask the police representative questions and make comments.

Discussion:

The Chairman welcomed Detective Constable Gill Angus to the meeting.

Detective Constable (DC) Angus advised that this was the second time she had presented the annual report to the Committee and stated that the Police Licensing Team now contained more officers and covered areas other than Medway including Dartford, Gravesham and Swale. The work was split between compliance and enforcement and it was considered that compliance reduced the number of complaints regarding premises licenses whereas enforcement and reviews were used as a last resort. She reported that a recent review had resulted in a public house in Chatham being closed down.

DC Angus went on to make the following points:

·                    The number of temporary event notices issued between April 2013 and March 2014 had seen a significant reduction on the previous year. The reason for the reduction was the increase in use of a new and varied licensing application so there was no longer the need for licensed premises to use a temporary event notice for special events.

·                    The Medway area had the highest proportion of crimes generated from pubs and clubs (not premises serving late night refreshments) and this was mainly due to premises overcrowding. The Kent Fire and Rescue Service calculated the capacity of licensed premises. However, it was noted that some crimes attributed to a premises happened outside the premises. This tended to happen when a caller to the emergency services had identified the address outside of which the incident had occurred. The Committee was advised that Rochester had the second busiest night-time economy in Kent after Canterbury.

·                    With regard to page 21 of the report, Councillors were informed that the door supervisors of licensed premises routinely shared information with the police. DC Angus reported that the 18-24 year age range for victims and offenders was approximately the same across all four areas. However more surprising was the increase of victims and offenders in the 30 years plus age range. It was noted that some licensed premises actively tried to attract an older age range of customers.

·                    DC Angus reported particular problems in Gillingham and people who had lived in the area all their lives who congregated in local licensed premises. This tended to prompt the reliving of schoolyard insults, for example ‘you stole my girlfriend when we were at school’ which in turn caused problems. In addition, the eastern European population had a culture of heavy drinking. To address this issue, licensed premises had employed door supervisors who spoke the appropriate language who banned known heavy drinkers until they became re-educated.

·                    DC Angus advised that the poisoning listed on page 23 of the report referred to drink spiking and no cases had been correctly identified. Those that had been reported had been found to be over indulgence with regard to alcohol and not drink spiking. In addition, the Committee was advised that most offences were caused by multiple offenders for example, one person committing 6 offences in one night. However no racial attacks had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 341.