Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE LICENSING AND COMMUNITY SAFETY MANAGER

The purpose of this report is to provide the Licensing and Regulation Committee with a summary of the work undertaken by the licensing service over the previous twelve months, an update on existing projects and an overview of future proposals.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Reviewed the Annual Report and commented on its content.

(2)   Noted the Annual Report.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: Section 8.2.3 of the Council Constitution requires the Full Committee to meet at least once per civic year and section 8.2.3 (d) requires the Committee ‘to receive an annual report on licensing activities including performance information’

Audio recording – 3 minutes 21 seconds

The Licensing and Community Safety Manager presented the report entitled ‘Presentation of the Annual Licensing Report 2024/25’ and advised that:

·       The report covered the highlights from the work of Licensing team over the last year but did not detail every aspect of the work completed.

·       The Management Support Unit continued to support the service with administrative tasks, which allowed the Licensing Officers to focus on licensing activity.

·       A concert was due to be held at Knebworth House in July 2026 for Iron Maiden, which would be a large concert and would be the end of their European tour.

·       If Members were interested in the preparations around a large scale event and the licensing work involved, a walk around could be provided by the team.

·       Following previous comments by the Committee, the number of inspections was now much higher than previously. Whilst there does not seem to be much of an increase between 2023/24 and 2024/25, this was due to a push to inspect in 2023/24 where each premises was risk-rated and the premises with a lower risk would not be inspected again until 2026.

·       The number of applications received was slightly up on previous year, but a year-by-year comparison was not always an accurate view of the situation, as it would depend on the duration of the license granted. It was more accurate to look at the number of licenses held at any one time, which, as detailed at Appendix B, there were almost 100 more licenses than the year before, which meant new businesses were opening in the district.

·       There had been 76 complaints received against taxi drivers, which was a significant increase, and the number of complaints received was higher, but this figure reflected genuine complaints.

·       A Taxi Trade Association meeting had taken place recently which drew attention to the increased workload created by vexatious complaints. Officers highlighted the actual cost of investigating these complaints and, if they continued at high volumes, this would be added to the license fee.

·       There had only been three Licensing Sub-Committee hearings held in the past year, although these were lengthy meetings.

·       The report did not always highlight the complexity of enforcement work and therefore it looked as though there had not been much activity in this area.

·       However, the work around the Cats Survival Trust took a lot of Officer time in ensuring that a suitable alternative location was found to prevent the cats being euthanised. In the end, only three cats were required to be euthanised due to ill health.

·       An update to the Licensing Policy was to be discussed later in this meeting.

·       The Licensing team were continuing to work with the Digital Transformation team to improve the customer service, but it was important to balance this against what was appropriate and actionable.

·       The Violence Against Women and Girls Safety Charter was now live in Letchworth and Hitchin, and work was ongoing with premises in Baldock and Royston.

·       To support the roll  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6