Agenda item

Purpose: To consider the comments received during the consultation on the Statement of Licensing Policy and any ensuing modifications that have been made to the draft policy prior to adopting it with or without further modifications.

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 16) concerning the statement of Licensing Policy - Review and Consultation.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Dillon and seconded by Councillor Phil Barnett:

That the Council:

·         “Consider the consultation responses.

·         Resolve to adopt the policy with or without modification and that it comes into effect on the 1 December 2023.

·         Resolve to delegate authority to the Service Lead (Public Protection) and the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Licensing Committee to make any minor amendments to the policy arising from legislative changes and changes to the S182 guidance.”

Councillor Dillon informed the Council that, in accordance with the Licensing Act 2003, the Council was required to have a Licensing Policy in place and the policy needed to be reviewed at least every five years. The Councillor stated that the current policy was adopted in December 2018 and following a thorough review the document was re-ordered, reformatted and re-written. As a result, the changes suggested in the new iteration constituted minor modifications.

The changes included:

·         The statement that each licence would have conditions attached to it.

·         That licensees would be encouraged to work in partnership with a local Pubwatch scheme, if one was in place, and licensed premises would be encouraged to participate in schemes such as Ask Angela, Ask ANI and anti-drink spiking initiatives.

·         Making use of Security Industry Authority licensed door supervisors, or stewards where appropriate to do so.

·         Reference to the agent of change principles, which meant that someone responsible for a change in a vicinity would also be responsible for the impact of that change.

·         Changes arising from the revised S182 guidance, which included changes to numbers and duration of temporary event notices.

Councillor Dillon noted that the amended draft policy agreed at the July 2023 Licensing Committee was subjected to a ten-week consultation period starting on the 12 July 2023 and running until the 20 September 2023.

Councillor Dillon was pleased to receive 47 responses to the consultation, which was considerably more than the three received in 2018 and expressed that they were laid out in Appendix B of the report.

Councillor Dillon thanked all those that took the time to respond and noted that at the Licensing Committee meeting in November, Members requested that in future the Council include those tasked with educating young people in the list of consultees and had asked Officers to ensure that this happened when the policy was next reviewed.

Councillor Dillon indicated that the changes arising from the consultation were set out in paragraphs 4.10 and 4.11 of the report and that the policy received cross party support at the Licensing Committee. He therefore proposed that the policy be adopted for publication on 1 December 2023.

Councillor Phil Barnett had expected the policy to have generated more discussion at Council. The Councillor expressed that Licensing Policy was a testament to a lot of hard work by Officers to make sure it was fit for purpose. The Councillor was pleased with the number of consultation responses received, which highlighted an effort, on the part of the Council, to work extensively with the local community. The Councillor encouraged Members to support the motion.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED