Agenda, decisions and minutes

None received.

To authorise the Chairman to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2012.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2012 were agreed as a correct record.

(a)          The Licensing Committee RECOMMENDED to the Environmental Services Portfolio Holder that the draft Licensing (2003 Act) Policy as attached at Appendix A to the covering report be approved for consultation purposes, subject to the typographical and grammatical amendments proposed at the meeting.

(b)          The Environmental Services Portfolio Holder, being present at the meeting APPROVED the draft Licensing (2003 Act) Policy as attached at Appendix A to the covering report for consultation purposes, subject to the typographical and grammatical amendments proposed at the meeting.

The Licensing Committee was requested to review the Licensing (2003 Act) Policy and recommend to the Environmental Services Portfolio Holder the commencement of a consultation process on the draft proposals.

Under s.5 of the Licensing 2003 Act, a review of the Policy every five years was required. The last review was undertaken during 2010 and became effective in January 2011. However, changes introduced in respect of the Act relating to the Live Music Act 2012 and the Police & Social Responsibility Act 2011, together with guidelines issued by the Department of Culture, Media and Sports necessitated the requirement to undertake a review of the Policy.

A draft policy incorporating the amendments was presented to the Committee and Portfolio Holder for approval to commence the requisite consultation process.

Once the consultation process had been completed, the Policy incorporating any amendments received would be considered again by the Licensing Committee and Portfolio Holder in October for recommendation to Council on 28 November 2013.

The Head of Service for Environmental Health and Licensing informed Members that amendments could only be made to pages 7 to 21 in the agenda papers as the annexes to the Policy had already been adopted. It was noted however, that Annex B, the Environmental Health Enforcement Policy was undergoing a review and it was anticipated that that revised Policy would be incorporated into the new Licensing 2003 Act Policy.

Having considered the contents of the draft Policy, the Licensing Committee made the following amendments:

·         P26 – 2.9 (Other Conditions) Add signage relating to the presence of CCTV cameras

·         P29 – 5.29(ii) All persons should be aware of evacuation arrangements and (vii) add additional wording to read `All exits, including emergency exits are kept unobstructed …

·         P30 Fire action – Include evacuation procedure

·         P31(m) Special Effects – Specially designed cabinets were required to store special effects and a designated person with an explosives licence was required to handle explosives

·         P47, para 29 – add the words `excluding the performer’

The Licensing Committee RECOMMENDED to the Environmental Services Portfolio Holder that the draft Licensing (2003 Act) Policy as attached at Appendix A to the covering report be approved for consultation purposes, subject to the grammatical amendments proposed at the meeting.

The Environmental Services Portfolio Holder, being present at the meeting APPROVED the draft Licensing (2003 Act) Policy as attached at Appendix A to the covering report for consultation purposes, subject to the grammatical amendments proposed at the meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting the Head of Service, Environmental Health and Licensing thanked Tara King, Assistant Licensing Officer for the extra work she had undertaken in order to prepare the draft Policy for consultation.