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.

The Chairman explained the procedure to be followed for the meeting.

The Public Protection Officer, Licensing presented the report to the Sub-Committee. He stated that an application had been made under s.17 Licensing Act 2003 by Dave Mansbridge on behalf of VIP Production Ltd in respect of a premises licence for Bath Reggae Festival, Kensington Gardens Bath.

He added that the application was for the Premises Licence to take effect on one Saturday in August each year.

He informed the Sub-Committee that a relevant representation had been received within the statutory period from the Council’s Public Protection Team.

The Specialist Officer (Health & Safety) addressed the Sub-Committee. She explained that she was a member of the Council’s Safety Advisory Group for Events (SAGE) and that they had only received information regarding the application with 6 weeks’ notice until the event was due to take place. She added that both the Police and Fire Service had also expressed concerns about the event taking place.

She said that a number of discussions had taken place with the applicant over the past few weeks but that a number of elements for the event remain missing.

She stated that a food safety management system plan had still not been received from the food trader for the event and that they have no information about who will be running the bars.

She said that she has concerns over the competency and management of the event organisers.

She also said she had concerns about the wind management plan for the temporary structures.

Councillor Steve Hedges asked if she knew how many people were expected to attend the event.

The Specialist Officer (Health & Safety) replied that figures within the documents received ranged from 1,500 – 3,000.

Councillor Hedges asked if she was satisfied with the Traffic Management Plan.

The Specialist Officer (Health & Safety) replied that access had been established at both ends of the site, but that one is a private unadopted road. She added that some stewarding is supposed to be in place but queried what powers they would have.

Councillor Michael Evans asked what level of input the Council normally gives to events such as this during the application process.

The Specialist Officer (Health & Safety) replied that where organisers are not fully aware of the locality there are always elements to look at and to highlight local anomalies. She added that she felt that the Council had needed to request a lot of information from the applicant over the past six weeks.

Kevin Peterkin addressed the Sub-Committee on behalf of the applicant VIP Production Ltd. He said that they have been organising festivals like the one applied for since 2018 and that the setup would replicate that of the previous events they have held.

He explained that they have had difficulty in confirming food vendors before the lockdown restrictions had been lifted. He confirmed that there would now be only one food vendor on site and that they had contacted ticket holders to inform them that they could bring their own food to the event.

Councillor Rob  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.