Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors David Barnard, Daniel Allen, Lisa Nash and Elizabeth Dennis.

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Apologies for absence were received from Councillors David Barnard, Daniel Allen, Lisa Nash and Elizabeth Dennis.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 October 2024 and 10 March 2025.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the Meetings of the Committee held on 14 October 2024 and 10 March 2025 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

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Councillor Dave Winstanley, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Ian Albert seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the Meetings of the Committee held on 14 October 2024 and 10 March 2025 be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chair.

Members are reminded that any declarations of interest in respect to any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or a Declarable Interest and are required to notify the Chair of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda. Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item.

Members declaring a Declarable Interest, wishing to exercise a ‘Councillor Speaking Right’, must declare this at the same time as the interest, move to the public area before speaking to the item and then must leave the room before the debate and vote.

(1)   The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be recorded.

(2)   The Chair drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question.

(3)   The Chair advised for purposes of clarification that 4.8.23(a) of the constitution did apply to this meeting and Members were required to be present for the entirety of an Item to vote.

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(1)   The Chair advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be recorded.

(2)   The Chair drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question.

(3)   The Chair advised for purposes of clarification that 4.8.23(a) of the constitution did apply to this meeting and Members were required to be present for the entirety of an Item to vote.

Members should notify the Chair of other business which they wish to be discussed at the end of either Part I or Part II business set out in the agenda. They must state the circumstances which they consider justify the business being considered as a matter of urgency. The Chair will decide whether any item(s) raised will be considered.

There was no other business notified.

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There was no other business notified.

To receive petitions, comments, and questions from the public.

There was no public participation.

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There was no public participation.

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’

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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.

REPORT OF THE LICENSING AND COMMUNITY SAFETY MANAGER

The purpose of this report is for the Licensing and Regulation Committee to consider the draft policy prepared by officers and any public consultation responses in order to recommend the adoption of a Statement of Licensing Policy to Full Council.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Considered the responses to the public consultation.

(2)   Supported the proposed Statement of Licensing Policy attached as Appendix C, with an amendment to remove the final sentence from paragraph D11.10.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL: That the Statement of Licensing Policy, as amended, be adopted.

REASONS FOR REFERRAL:

(1)   Licensing authorities are required to publish a policy every five years by virtue of section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003 (“the Act”).

(2)   A new policy must be published by 7 January 2026 to comply with this statutory requirement.

(3)   The proposed policy builds on the success of the previous and existing versions of the policy, whilst reflecting legislative changes and the Council’s priorities.

(4)   Responses to the public consultation were limited and raised no significant opposition to any of the proposals.

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The Licensing and Community Safety Manager presented the report entitled ‘Adoption of a Statement of Licensing Policy Required by Virtue of Section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003’ and advised that:

·       A new Licensing Policy was required to be considered by this Committee, before adoption by Full Council.

·       The government had launched a consultation on changes to the Licensing Act, which may require a review of this proposed new Policy, but it was not expected that these would be especially onerous changes, as some of the proposals were already covered in the Policy.

·       There were no significant changes proposed from the previous Policy, as it was felt that it currently worked well.

·       The Council had never lost a licensing appeal and the Policy, as well as training provided, was important in maintaining this.

·       A vision for licensing across the district had been included in the Policy, but many other changes were to tidy up the Policy following recent hearings.

·       There was clarification on noise nuisance added, confirmation that CCTV was not required in all licensing situations and the conflict between licensing and planning policy had been resolved.

·       The Policy continued to promote virtual Sub-Committee hearings as the default position, with the ability to hold in person for specific cases.

·       The summarised consultation responses were included at Appendix A, alongside Officer comments, and the full responses to the consultation were included at Appendix B.

·       There were no major changes to the Policy following the consultation.

·       The proposed Policy was included at Appendix C.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Tim Johnson

·       Councillor Ian Albert

In response to questions, the Licensing and Community Safety Manager advised that the reference to the weight applied to the contribution of the Environmental Health officer was to strike a balance between lack of formal evidence and still allowing an expert opinion to be considered. However, it was agreed that the word ‘substantial’ would fetter the discretion of the Committee and could be amended.

Councillor Amy Allen proposed the recommendations and Councillor Ian Albert seconded.

As part of the debate, Councillor Ruth Brown proposed an amendment to remove the final sentence from paragraph D11.10 of the Policy at Appendix C. This was seconded by Councillor Sean Prendergast.

Councillor Amy Allen confirmed, as proposer, that she would accept the amendment into the substantive motion. This was confirmed by Councillor Ian Albert, as seconder, and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

(1)   Considered the responses to the public consultation.

(2)   Supported the proposed Statement of Licensing Policy attached as Appendix C, with an amendment to remove the final sentence from paragraph D11.10.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL: That the Statement of Licensing Policy, as amended, be adopted.

REASONS FOR REFERRAL:

(1)   Licensing authorities are required to publish a policy every five years by virtue of section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003 (“the Act”).

(2)   A new policy must be published by 7 January 2026 to comply with this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.