Meeting documents

Present:

Councillor Hardy (in the Chair)

Councillors

In Attendance:

Mrs S Davies, Principal Solicitor-Licensing Mr T Coglan, Tourism and Regeneration Directorate Mr L Beattie and Mrs P Higson, Business Services

Also Present:

Mr I Treasure, Blackpool Primary Care Trust

1. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

There were no declaration of interest made.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 23rd May 2006, be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The Committee considered a joint proposal by the Police, the B Safe Blackpool Partnership and Blackpool Primary Care Trust to allocate an area of Blackpool as an area in which saturation had been reached in terms of licences. In support of this proposal evidence was presented to the Committee of crime and disorder statistics for the past twelve months within the town centre area. The Committee considered the proposal to create a special policy of cumulative impact within this area as a tool to promote the licensing objective of prevention of crime and disorder.

Mrs Davies explained that at present there was a presumption to grant a licence unless there was strong evidence that the licence would not meet the four key licensing objectives, under a special policy of cumulative impact this presumption would be reversed so that licences could only be granted if applicants could prove that they would meet the licensing objectives. It was also explained that such a policy was currently in operation in a number of other cities with high densities of licences.

It was considered that it would useful to consult on the proposal and for members to receive more information on the implementation of special policies of cumulative impact, prior to the Licensing policy being amended.

Resolved:

To authorise officers to consult on the proposed amendments to the Statement of Licensing policy.

The Committee considered reviewing the Statement of Licensing Policy which came into force on 7th January 2006.

It was proposed that the sections of the statement of policy which referred to transition arrangements were no longer relevant as the transitional phase had now concluded and should be deleted. As the Committee had already agreed to consult on other amendments to the licensing policy it was considered opportune to consult on both amendments simultaneously.

Resolved:
To authorise officers to consult on the proposed amendments to the Statement of Licensing Policy.

The Committee considered the quarterly update for the period June to August 2006, on licences applied for, dealt with and appealed.In the period June to August, the Licensing section dealt with a total of 41applications for new premises licences, 20 variation applications, 86 transfers of premises licences, 114 variations of designated premises supervisors and 38 temporary event notices, as well as 156 personal licence applications. In the same period, the Council had scheduled a total of 42 hearings, of which 34 were cancelled due to mediation.

Two appeals had been dealt with since the last meeting. The first one concerning a licence which had been revoked following a review while the appeal had been successful in part, it was noted that the licence had been suspended for a period of four weeks. The second appeal was an appeal by the police against the grant of a personal licence and had been upheld.

Mr T Coglan, Environmental Services, provided the Committee with an update on enforcement taken during the last quarter. It was explained that Blackpool was using a multi-agency approach to enforcement with officers from the Council, Police and Fire able to enforce on different areas. Mr Coglan gave statistics and information on a range of enforcement action including underage sales, taxi enforcement and food safety enforcement. It was explained that while levels were relatively high this was due to enforcement being intelligence-led rather than random.

Resolved:
That the update be noted

The meeting ended at 11.10 a.m.

Any queries regarding these Minutes, please contact:
Liz Wood, Democratic Services Assistant
Tel: (01253) 477141, or alternatively, E-mail: liz.wood@blackpool.gov.uk

• Printer-friendly version
• Rich Text Format (RTF)