Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors N Clarke, J Hoult and G Jones

Under the Code of Conduct members are reminded that in declaring disclosable interests you should make clear the nature of that interest and whether it is ‘Pecuniary’ or ‘Non-Pecuniary’.

There were no interests declared.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2017.

Consideration was given to the minutes of meeting held on 22 February 2017.

Councillor G A Allman requested that his apologies for the previous meeting be included in the minutes.

It was moved by Councillor M Specht, seconded by Councillor J Cotterill and

RESOLVED THAT:

Subject to the above amendment, the minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2017 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Report of the Environmental Health Team Manager

The Environmental Health Team Manager presented the report to members.  He highlighted that the current policy was reviewed in 2014 and approved by Council in 2015.  He explained that the purpose of the review was to remove processes where they added little or no value and to simplify the policy for applicants, licence holders and the administration.  He advised that following the comments made by members, the final draft of the policy would be circulated for consultation before being brought back to the Licensing Committee. He outlined the proposed changes to the policy.  He explained that the new policy was much shorter than the existing policy as a lot of the process had been removed and the information had been split into two documents; the policy itself and some supporting guidance, which was provided for information.  He sought comments from members on the proposed policy changes.

Councillor N Smith sought clarification in respect of consideration of further applications following a revocation.  He asked whether the 3 year period was proportionate, whether there should be a sliding scale and how the three year period had been arrived at. 

The Environmental Health Team Manager explained that there was currently no guidance and the aim of this was to prevent someone who had had their licence revoked from submitting a further application immediately. 

The Legal Advisor explained that currently the grant of a trading consent was in the absolute gift of the authority and there was no right of appeal.  He advised that the purpose of including a time limit was to provide an indication to someone who had had their licence revoked when they could apply again.

The Chairman had asked the Legal Advisor whether such matters could be put to a Licensing Sub Committee.  The Legal Advisor’s strong view was that this was not appropriate as this would enable an appeal process where there was no such process in law and any decision of the Licensing Sub Committee would also become subject to a judicial review. 

The Chairman asked whether other local authorities included a time limit and what their experience was of this. 

The Legal Advisor explained that strictly speaking, there was no requirement in law to have a policy whatsoever.  He stated that lots of authorities had a policy and its purpose was to be a strategic high level document to provide an indication of the sort of tests that the authority would apply when considering a street trading consent.  He advised that some local authorities did include a time limit, however there was no requirement to include one and it was entirely a matter for members to take a view on whether this would be in the interests of openness, transparency and consistency in determining applications.

Councillor R Ashman stated that he was not comfortable with setting an arbitrary time limit as this was likely to be challenged on whether or not it was proportionate.  He added that he would prefer to remove the time limit from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chairman advised that the meeting in November had been cancelled due to lack of business.