Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer advised the meeting of the procedure.

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 Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was none.

This procedure will be used for agenda item 8.

The Chair drew attention to the procedure to be followed for agenda item 7.

The Committee is invited to pass the following resolution:

“the Committee having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, RESOLVES that the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the next item of business and that the reporting of this part of the meeting be prevented under Section 100A(5A), because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended.”   

The Committee having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, RESOLVED that the public should be excluded from the meeting for the next item of business and that the reporting of this part of the meeting be prevented under Section 100A(5A), because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended. 

This matter had been scheduled for hearing on the 26^th October 2017. The licence holder had not attended the meeting, or provided any reason for his absence. The Sub-Committee had resolved, for reasons of fairness, to defer the hearing to a future meeting. Notice was sent to the licence holder informing him that his case would be heard at today’s meeting, and that if he failed to attend the case could be determined in his absence. The licence holder had not attended today’s meeting, nor provided a reason for his failure to do so. The Sub-Committee noted that the licence holder had repeatedly failed to respond to attempts to contact him. Members considered whether or not the matter should proceed in the licence holder’s absence or be deferred again. On that preliminary issue the Sub-Committee resolved in the circumstances to proceed in Mr JLW’s absence.

After discussion the Sub-Committee RESOLVED that Mr J L W was no longer a fit and proper person to hold a combined Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Driver’s Licence and authority was delegated to the Public Protection Officer to give notice revoking his licence.

Reasons

Members have had to determine whether or not the licensee continues to be a fit and proper person to hold a combined Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Driver’s Licence having failed to provide a copy of his Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate. In doing so they had regard to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, Human Rights Act 1998, case law and the Council’s Policy.

The licensee failed to attend the hearing on 26^th October 2017 as a result Members determined in the interests of fairness to defer the matter until the next Licensing Sub Committee meeting on notice to the licensee that should he fail to attend on the next occasion the matter may be dealt with in his absence.

The matter came before the Licensing Sub Committee for determination today having been deferred. The Licensee failed to attend and there was no information regarding his non-attendance. Members noted that the Licensee would have been put on notice that the matter may proceed in his absence. In the light of these circumstances Members decided to proceed in Mr J L W’s absence.

Members took into account the contents of the report before them together with annexes. Mr JLW had not made any representations in writing and had not attended the hearing in person to make oral representations.

Members noted:

  i.  That Mr JLW’s licence had been issued on 29^th January 2017 subject to “a satisfactory DBS Check”.

  ii.  The DBS web portal had confirmed that a certificate was issued by the DBS and sent to Mr JLW on 8^th February 2017.

  iii.  Mr JLW was sent a letter by the Taxi Licensing team on 27^th June reminding him that he was obliged to provide a copy of his DBS certificate as soon as he received it. He was asked to produce the certificate within 7 days of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

The Chair drew attention to the procedure to be followed for the next item of business.

Applicant: Macellen Ltd, represented by Magnus MacDonald (Director) and Mark Heather (Director)

Other Persons present: Michael Brett (representing Tramshed Ltd and The Abbey Residents’ Association), Catherine Chambers (resident), Stephen Montgomery (resident)

The parties confirmed that they had received and understood the licensing procedure.

The Senior Public Protection Officer summarised the report. She reminded Members that the hearing of this application had been deferred from 9^th November 2017. Members noted that the premises were situated within the Cumulative Impact Area, that five representations had been received from Other Persons residing close to the premises. Between them these representations related to all four licensing objectives. There had been no representations from the Responsible Authorities. The applicant had offered conditions to promote the licensing objectives as detailed in paragraph 5.5 of the report. Tramshed and The Abbey Residents’ Association had proposed further conditions as set out in their written representation (agenda pages 74-75). The applicant already held a licence for the premises, which would be surrendered if today’s application was granted.

Mr MacDonald and Mr Heather stated the case for the applicant. Mr MacDonald said that he had applied for this new licence after discussion with the Police Licensing Officer. It was felt that the existing premises licence was an unsatisfactory document and that the plan of the premises was not very accurately drawn. Work had been done to improve the building, access to it, and its relationship with neighbours. The old extractor fan had been undersized and sounded like a jet engine. The building had been in a pretty shocking condition. In consultation with the Police Licensing Officer and the Senior Public Protection Officer and others a more satisfactory licence had been drawn up. He explained that his professional background had been in building construction and restaurant design. He had been involved with the Glass Boat and half a dozen other restaurants in Bristol. It would be entirely counterproductive for any business to alienate its neighbours. The kitchen had been moved downstairs from the first floor, since an extractor fan could not be installed in the original location. The backyard had been in a terrible condition. In conclusion he said that the applicant wished to serve a wide range of customers. They wanted to provide a good quality breakfast early in the morning, a happy hour for children in the afternoon, and be a place where people could drop in for a drink after work, and then providing evening meals. There were few places at the moment where people could have a drink after a visit to the theatre without being deafened. He did not like to be subjected to noise and other nuisance from licensed premises, and saw no reason to inflict it on others. He had had connections with Walcot Street since the 1970s and understood the area and the spirit that it used to have. He hoped to contribute to reviving this, serving everyone from the oldest to the youngest.

Mr Heather said that he had had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.