Meeting documents

Cllr Tim Warren was elected Chairman for the Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that a Vice-Chair(Person) was not required on this occasion.

The Clerk read out the procedure.

Apologies were received from Cllr Bryan Chalker.

There were none.

There was none.

There were none.

These were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Members were unhappy that the draft revised Statement of Licensing Policy did not include the text of the proposed Cumulative Impact Policy. They noted that paragraphs 8.1 and 14.3, for example, made no reference to the Cumulative Impact Policy. They therefore felt unable to forward their comments on the revised Statement of Licensing Policy to the Council based on the current draft.

Members asked for clarification on the relationship between the Cumulative Impact Policy and the provisions of paragraph 6.3 of the revised Statement of Licensing Policy that "each case will be considered on its merits" and paragraph 20.1 that "the Licensing Authority may not impose conditions on or refuse to grant/vary a Premises Licence or Club Premises Certificate unless it has received a relevant representation in respect of the application."

The Senior Legal Adviser explained that the Cumulative Impact Policy would not exempt the Licensing Authority from considering individual applications on their merits. However a Cumulative Impact Policy created a rebuttable presumption that applications for new premises licences or variations of licences for premises within the area covered by the Cumulative Impact Policy would normally be refused if relevant representations had been received which related to the Cumulative Impact Policy. The onus would then be on the applicant to demonstrate that there would not be a negative cumulative impact on one or more of the licensing objectives.

The Environmental Monitoring and Licensing Manager explained that the Licensing Authority could not refuse or impose conditions on new licences or variations, even if the premises were situated in a saturation area, except after a hearing. A hearing could only take place if relevant representations had been received.

In response to a question from a member about Temporary Event Notices, the Environmental Monitoring and Licensing Manager explained that "occasional permissions" under the old licensing legislation were now known as Temporary Event Notices. These could only be refused by the Licensing Authority after a hearing, which could only take place if there was a police objection.

There was also a discussion about relevant representations and the Senior Legal Adviser explained that it was the Licensing Officers' responsibility to determine whether or not representations under the Licensing Act 2003 were `relevant representations' in legal terms.

The Committee unanimously RESOLVED that officers should prepare a revised draft of the Statement of Licensing Policy incorporating the Cumulative Impact Policy and that the Committee would meet to consider it before the Council meeting on 22 November.

Members considered this to be a very good document.

In a discussion on section 6 regarding `lobbying' members mentioned instances where they had been contacted by applicants or licence holders. The Senior Legal Adviser suggested that it would be best to report all such contacts in accordance with paragraph 6.3.3 of the draft Good Practice Guide.

Members RESOLVED to note the document.

The meeting finished at 11.00am.