Agenda and minutes

It was moved by Councillor Cox and seconded by Councillor Hill that Councillor Marlow be appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Committee for 2023/2024. After being put to the meeting, and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that Councillor Marlow be appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Committee for 2023/2024.

To receive apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Bull. Councillor Devonshire was substituting in his place.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on Wednesday 15 March 2023.

It was moved by Councillor Wyllie and seconded by Councillor Townsend, that the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 March 2023 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the Committee meeting held on 15 March 2023 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. 

The Chairman said there was a recommendation from the previous Licensing Committee that the new Committee should visit the taxi ranks in the District in the day and at night. The Chairman said she would like to take this recommendation forward so the Committee have an opportunity to look at the licensing activity in the District. She said she would like to broaden the remit to look at more areas than just taxis and said she would work with Officers to get some dates in Members’ diaries.

To receive the Minutes of meetings of the Licensing Sub–Committee held on 27 April 2023.

The Committee received the minutes from the Licensing Sub-Committee held on 27 April 2023.

The Chairman informed Members of the Committee that training for the Licensing Sub-Committee would be held on Tuesday 27 June at 6pm in the Council Chamber. She said that the training was mandatory for Members and requested that the few Members that had already attended training for the earlier sub-committees attend the training again as there would be a session on the wider remit of the Licensing Committee.

To receive any Members’ declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Service Manager for Licensing and Enforcement presented the quarterly report to the Committee. He said that the quarterly reports were required to ensure public oversight of licensing activities in the District. He gave an overview of the report and said that the Committee could amend the format of the report depending on what information they wanted to look at.

Councillor Townsend said he was aware that there was a restriction on the number of Hackney Carriage vehicles in the District and asked if there was a restriction on any other types of licences.

The Service Manager for Licensing and Enforcement said that there was no limit on other licences. He said that the cumulative impact could be considered on licence applications but there was not a restriction on their numbers.

Councillor Dunlop referred to the 145 Temporary Event Notices (TEN) that had been received with no objections. He asked the background to this and if there was a lot of work in the background to mitigate the objections.

The Service Manager for Licensing and Enforcement said that a lot of work was done in the background. He said that if the police or Environmental Health had any concerns, they would contact the applicant and have a discussion which could lead to the application being amended or withdrawn. He said that for premises that already had a licence, conditions could be attached to the TEN or agree to put measures in place. This meant that objections were often withdrawn.

The Chairman asked the Service Manager to pass on the Committee’s congratulations to the team for achieving all of their performance targets.

It was proposed by Councillor Townsend and seconded by Councillor Hill that the recommendations, as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED - That Members review and comment on the Licensing activity in Quarter 4 of 2022-23

The Service Manager for Licensing and Enforcement presented the annual report to the Committee. He ran through the highlights of the report and referred to the drop in taxi inspections. He explained that the Licensing Enforcement Officers had carried out more out of hours inspections which had reduced the time available in the week to carry out the day to day work. He assured the Committee that taxis had MOTs and the team responded to any complaints.

The Service Manager also referred to paragraph 3.5 and the points scheme for taxi drivers. He highlighted that 30 points had been issued between four drivers.

Councillor Devonshire asked how the taxi licence points system worked.

The Service Manager said that taxi licence points scheme meant that drivers could only accumulate 12 points within a two year rolling period, if they exceeded that number, they would have to attend a Licensing Sub-Committee. He said the council could prosecute drivers but this was time consuming and would not be in the public interest which was why the scheme was implemented. He said that the trade knew about it and no one had come before the Committee in several years so it did work.

Councillor Townsend asked if there was a restriction on where Hackney Carriage vehicles could pick up.

The Service Manager said that Hackney Carriages could only pick up in the area they were licenced.

It was proposed by Councillor Marlow and seconded by Councillor Hill that the recommendations, as detailed, be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED - That Members review and comment on the Licensing activity in the financial year 2022-23.

To consider such other business as, in the opinion of the Chairman of the meeting, is of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration and is not likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information.

There was no urgent business.