Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present the local authority compliance and enforcement report on licensing matters to the Licensing and Safety Committee and for members to ask officers questions and make comments.

Discussion:

The Committee received a detailed presentation on the work of the Licensing Enforcement Team.

The Senior Licensing and Enforcement Officer advised members on the key points including:

·        The increasing number of licensed premises surrendering their licences during the last financial year.

·        There were a number of empty/derelict licensed premises where officers were unable to locate the licence holder. Officers had spent time trying to locate the licence holders, as they owed money to the Council. However, recent …… legislation changes now gave the Licensing enforcement team the power to suspend premises licences and club premises certificates for non-payment of the annual maintenance fee.

·        The high turnover of licence holders and designated premises supervisors. In partnership with the Police Officer were involved in Operation Trigger, which ran every two weeks and involved visiting those premises where changes had taken place.

·        Prioritising and focusing enforcement visits on those high-risk premises that cause crime and disorder, endanger public safety or cause a nuisance as a result of bad management.

·        Gambling offences in pubs and clubs, including an increase in the number of illegal gaming machines. Working in partnership with the Gambling Commission, in 99% of cases, the illegal machines were removed within seven days.

·        Medway is currently seen as a leader in cutting down illegal gambling in Kent.

·        Operation Chaser involving work with Police Special Constables, to pull over licensed vehicles so that the enforcement team can carry out the necessary inspections.

·        Successful running of Operation Trinian’s in carrying out inspections on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicles transporting school children to and from school.

·        The taxi trade were supportive of the inspections, as they wanted to ensure enforcement action was taken against those who did not comply.

·        Temporary Event Notices (TEN’s) had been difficult to manage, as there was a statutory requirement to acknowledge each TEN within 24 hours of receipt of the notification, this impacted on officers getting out to carry out visits/inspections and is now being done by the licensing services team

·        As of 1 April 2013 new compliance and enforcement pads allows enforcement officers to instantly issue their report at the time of their visit/inspection and ensured the person they had spoken to had a record of their official visit/inspection. 

·        Action taken by the Licensing Enforcement Team when acting as a Responsible Authority under the Licensing Act 2003 and the Gambling Act 2005

·        Details of re-active and pre-active compliance activity, such as the number of premises visits and the number of taxi inspections.

·        Close working relationship with other departments who are responsible for investigating different complaints.

·        Partnership working and the support provided to a number of organisations such as the Police.

·        The Olympic Games had an impact on the number of resources that were available by partners for a three month period in 2012.

The Senior Licensing Enforcement Officer advised members on the key areas the enforcement team were to prioritise including:

·        Increased checks on members clubs, as, in the past there have been significant breaches under the Licensing Act 2003 and Gambling Act 2005. This had resulted in the issuing of a Section 90 Withdrawal of a Club Premises Certificate.  Two clubs applied for premises licences and surrendered their club premises certificate rather than be served with a Section 90 Withdrawal of a Club Premises Certificate.

·        Running Operation Unite with the support of the UK Border Agency to tackle illegal working in off licences, restaurants and takeaways.

·        Continuation of Operation Bragg with the Gambling Commission to target unlicensed gaming machines.

·        Working in partnership with the Medway Taxi Association which we brought in new extinguisher requirements on 1 September 2012.

·        Dealing with the attitudes of taxi drivers towards enforcement officers carrying out their duties and, if necessary, referring cases to the Licensing Sub Committee for consideration.

The Senior Licensing Enforcement Officer explained that changes to the IT system involved the transfer of all enforcement actions onto the new IDOX system and that this would take time to complete.

She explained that over the forthcoming year the enforcement team would be looking at the legislation around the issuing of street trading licences and introducing a new system, which would impact on existing and future traders. Under the current system, the Town Centre Managers were responsible for Street Trading Consents for Town Centres and Festivals and the Licensing Team licensed other areas in Medway. This resulted in a level of inconsistency. A further report on this issue would be submitted to the Committee in late 2013/early 2014.

Members discussed the report and the Senior Licensing Enforcement Officer responded to questions raised. This included confirmation of the average level of licence fee debts, which were written off as irrecoverable. 

Members commented that having two different sources issuing street trading consents was not sensible and welcomed the proposal to change this. Members supported the referral of those drivers who were abusive to enforcement officers to the Licensing Sub Committee.

Decision:

The Licensing and Safety Committee noted the report and congratulated officers on the work set out in the report.