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Agenda item

LICENSING POLICY REPRESENTATION AND CHANGES TO REPORTS

Report of the Director of Public Protection and Licensing.

Minutes:

8.1      The item was introduced by Mr Sycamore.  He explained the operational change where senior licensing officers were representing the Licensing Authority on policy matters for applications within the Council’s cumulative impact areas.  This enabled Environmental Health officers to focus on the licensing objectives of public safety and preventing public nuisance when examining licensing applications that have been submitted.  The Licensing Service was able to ensure at an early stage that applicants focussed on the Council’s policy and met the requirements of the policy.  Mr Sycamore advised that there were a number of cases where, because the Licensing Service was able to discuss policy considerations with the applicants at an early stage, there were amendments to an application.  There had also been a number of applications withdrawn.  Mr Sycamore stated that the discussions between the Licensing Authority and Applicant assisted in limiting the aspects of the applications which the Sub-Committee needed to consider at the hearing and resulted in the Licensing Sub-Committee reports being more specific.

 

8.2      In response to a question from the Chairman, Mr Sycamore commented that he had benefitted in terms of gaining skills from being involved in the licensing consultation process and following his promotion to Licensing Team Manager, his colleagues were also looking forward to being involved.  Councillor Caplan said that the Licensing Authority’s role had worked well and recommended that one improvement would be if the Licensing Authority and Environmental Health gave some more thought to being slightly more distinctive and less repetitive in terms of their representations at the Sub-Committee meetings.  The Chairman thanked Mr Sycamore for his work on behalf of the Licensing Authority.  

 

8.3      Councillor Hyams asked about the provision of pre-application advice and whether the Licensing Authority charged a fee for its policy advice.  Mr Sycamore replied that pre-application advice was supplied by the Environmental Health Consultation Team.  Policy considerations by the Licensing Authority took place following the submission of the applications.  There was no fee charged by the Licensing Authority as the policy discussions were related to its statutory duties as a Responsible Authority.  The Chairman made the point that was achieved with the policy advice was greater efficiencies.        

 

8.4      The Committee noted the changes to the Sub-Committee reports.  Members of the Sub-Committee and interested parties for applications had access to names, addresses and plans whilst the publicly published versions had the name and address of the objector or supporter for an application redacted.  Those who were not interested parties could inspect plans at Council offices.  There was also mention in the report of the Council’s obligations to have regard to its public sector equality duty under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.  This would now be set out in all Licensing Sub-Committee reports.

 

8.5      The Chairman asked whether a service to prepare notices of licensing applications for advertising in newspapers could be supplied by the Licensing Service.  She queried whether this could be produced at a reduced cost in comparison to that of the applicants’ lawyers and provide a better service to the applicants.  Mr Simpkin replied that it was possible for the Licensing Service to provide this service as a means of recovering its costs. The Licensing Service was planning in the New Year to look at options to expand the services it was offering, including educating applicants about the Council’s expectations and assisting applicants with submissions.  Ms Acik added that the Licensing Service was considering what could be offered in terms of discretionary services and different levels of service.  The preparation of notices would be part of this process. 

 

8.6      It was agreed that the Committee would be updated on the additional services the Licensing Service would be looking to provide.  This was likely to be in a report to the Committee meeting in July 2018. 

 

8.7      RESOLVED: That the Committee be updated in a report on the additional services the Licensing Service plans to provide.

 

 

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