Agenda and minutes

Members are invited to disclose any interest in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting. 

Members may still disclose any interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

No interest was disclosed at the meeting

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10 November 2015, and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10 November 2015  were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee received a presentation on the House of Lords Licensing Act Review and Government response to the Licensing Act 2003.

The Committee was informed that the post legislative scrutiny by the House of Lords was to consider:

• What extent had the LA03 met it’s objective of balancing rights and responsibilities?
• Were the 4 licensing objectives underpinning the Act the right ones?
• Had the Act proved sufficiently flexible to addressing changing circumstances?
• What lessons could be learned?

The presentation provided the Committee with the House of Lords conclusion that read:

‘In the 11 years since the full implementation of the Licensing Act there has been piecemeal amendments made by nine different Acts of Parliament and a large number of significant amendments made by other Acts and by secondary legislation and changes to the Section182 guidance.’

The Committee was informed of the following recommendations from the review:

•      Transfer function of Licensing Committee to Planning Committee.

•      Equivalent of the Planning Inspectorate to hear appeals.

•      Training for all Councillors sitting on Licensing Committee. Compulsory and to a standard set out in the Section182 guidance.

•      Licensing committees should take into account Planning decisions and vice versa.

•      Put cumulative impact policies on a statutory footing.

•      Licensing fees to be set locally.

•      Create a national database for Personal Licence holders.

•      Training for Police Licensing officers.

The Committee was informed that the Government rejected all the recommendations from the scrutiny review. It was noted that the Local Government Association was to progress training for Councillors and the College of Policing to progress training for police licensing officers.

In rejecting the recommendation, the Government stated that there would no changes to the existing fees in the immediate future because of the business rate rise.  “The Government considers that now is not the time to make changes to the licensing fees.”

The Committee noted the presentation.

Havering Licensing  statistics provided to  the Home Office

The Committee received the following Licensing statistics for the period ending 31 March 2017.

There were 555 licensed premises in the borough in comparison to 641 in Redbridge and 371 in Barking & Dagenham.

There were 43 premises with only a late night refreshment licence in Havering, nine premises with 24 hours licence and three areas categorised as cumulative impact zone.  In comparison Redbridge had 80 premises, 12 premises with 24 hours licence and 2 cumulative impact zone (CIZ). In Barking & Dagenham, 35 premises existed with only late night refreshment and one venue with 24 hours licence. There was no CIZ in the borough.

It was noted that 37 new premises licence applications had been considered whilst 16 variations to a current licence were considered. Thirteen were granted and three were refused. The Committee was informed that ten applications were refused in CIZ area.

The following hearing figures were outlined:

 The following comparison data was detailed for Temporary Events Notices:

The Committee noted the update.