Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer read out the procedure.

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

There were none.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was none.

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

The Chair drew attention to the Review Procedure, copies of which had been made available to those attending the meeting.

Applicant for Review: Avon and Somerset Police, represented by Dan Johnson (Solicitor), Inspector Steven Mildren, Detective Inspector Janice Pearson, Detective Chief Inspector Nicholas Papuca, Martin Purchase (Police Licensing Officer)

Licence Holder: Kambiz Shayegan, represented by David Holley (Licensing Agent), Blair Ruddick (Designated Premises Supervisor)

Other Persons: Ian Perkins (The Abbey Residents’ Association), Sally Rothwell (Circus Area Residents’ Association)

The parties confirmed that they had received and understood the Review Procedure.

The Sub-Committee had received notice before the commencement of the hearing that the Police and Licence Holder had been discussing new licence conditions and might require further time to reach agreement. The Police and the Licence Holder confirmed that this was the case.

Mr Smith asked Mr Holley why his clients had not submitted a representation to today’s hearing. Mr Holley replied that his clients were very interested to see what was in the papers, which they had received the previous Monday, 4^th February. Mr Holley stated that the Licence Holder intended to comment in detail on the allegations at today’s hearing.

The Licensing Officer explained that the last day for representations had been 29^th January and that she had personally delivered all representations received including a DVD of CCTV footage, which was part of the Police evidence, to the Licence Holder on 30^th January.

Mr Smith said that he had advised the Sub-Committee on the provisions of the Human Rights Act, which would require that the Licence Holder be allowed to make representations in a process that might affect his right to a livelihood. Mr Johnson said that he had no objection to the Licence Holder being allowed to make representations, though he noted that the applicant had scrutinised the minutiae of the representations of the other parties, which he thought was a little unfair and not in keeping with the spirit of the process.

The Sub-Committee RESOLVED to adjourn the hearing for 20 minutes to allow discussions between the Police and the Licence Holder to continue.

When the hearing was reconvened, Mr Johnson addressed the Sub-Committee. He said that he was grateful for the granting of an adjournment, which had allowed the Police and the Licence Holder to agree on new licence conditions. He requested that the three Police witnesses be excused from giving evidence, as this was no longer necessary.

Mr Smith asked whether the Other Persons had been involved in discussions. When Mr Perkins said they had not, Mr Smith said that as a matter of law the fact that the Police had agreed conditions with the Licence Holder did not determine the process.

Copies of the proposed conditions were provided to Members and the Other Persons. The Sub-Committee RESOLVED to adjourn the hearing again to allow Members and the Other Persons to study them.

When the hearing reconvened, the Chair asked the Other Persons whether they were content with the proposed conditions. Mr Perkins said they were, but had suggested a couple of additional conditions, which the Licence Holder  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.