Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies and to note details of any substitutions and membership changes.

Apologies were received from Councillors Steve Bucknell, Sam Charleston, Kevin Daley, Jerry Kunkler and Robert Yuill and from Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer). 

There were no substitutions and no membership changes following the annual meeting of Council on 21 May 2024.  

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2024 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2024 were presented to the Committee. 

Resolved: 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2024 be approved and signed as a correct record. 

The Chairman highlighted that John Carter (Head of Service – Public Protection) had retired from Wiltshire Council at the end of May 2024 and that on behalf of the Committee he wished him well and thanked him for his input into licensing over many years.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Monday 10 June 2024 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Wednesday 12 June 2024. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

No questions or statements had been submitted to the Committee from the public in advance of the meeting. 

To receive an update on any appeals lodged against Licensing Sub Committee decisions.

There were no known Licensing Sub Committee appeals pending.   

To receive and sign the minutes of the following Licensing Sub Committees:

Eastern Area Licensing Sub Committee

19.03.24       Application for a Premises Licence – Bishops Cannings, Cricket              Club, Coate, Devizes

Western Area Licensing Sub Committee

01.02.24       Application for a Premises Licence – Westbury Pizza Limited, 8                 Westbury Mall, Edward Street, Westbury

The following minutes of the Licensing Sub Committees were approved: 

Eastern Area Licensing Sub Committee 

19.3.24         Application for a Premises Licence – Bishops Cannings Cricket               Club, Coate, Devizes 

Western Area Licensing Sub Committee 

01.02.24       Application for a Premises Licence, Westbury Pizza Limited, 8                 Westbury Mall, Edward Street, Westbury  

Resolved: 

That the minutes of the meetings detailed above be approved and signed as a correct record. 

Jason Salter (Head of Service – Passenger Transport) will give an update on behalf of the Passenger Transport Team at the meeting.

Jason Salter (Head of Service – Passenger Transport)gave an update on behalf of the passenger transport team and highlighted the following: 

·         Growth on SEND home to school transport requirements remained.? Provision was being made at new educational establishments and expanding at existing settings.? This would see around 500 more SEND placements in place by September 2026, with most students placed being entitled to transport.? In September 2024, there are an additional 233 places.? 100 of those places would be at the new Silverwood Rowde site where Wiltshire Council is the provider.? It was not anticipated that any additional vehicles would be required for these children as this was already set in place for September 2023, but the transition was postponed last year, due to the building not being ready.? The other spaces are spread across several other schools; 

·         It was felt that efforts had been exhaustedin trying to grow the taxi market in Wiltshire, but there were now some larger companies that had come on board in recent times, who are able to increase capacity with the right notice period – these companies included London Hire and 24/7 Essex; 

·         The team were now focusing their efforts on efficiency, and that wasn’t to say that they were not efficient before, but they were now using their Q Routes software more robustly after a period of staff training.? An example of its use was that in the new SAIL School in Salisbury, there would be an additional35 students travelling from this September 2024.? The team had been able to recast the transport for all who are travelling by using Q Routes and to date had only needed to introduce one additional vehicle to serve that school;

·         The team were also targeting single occupancy taxis in order to release vehicles into the market.? Within the contracted taxis, 144 of these just had one passenger on board.? 79 of those taxis were due to geography, and to merge the passengers onto another taxi would make the journey time excessive, when compared to government guidance, or, where the student is the only passenger attending a particular school.  The team would also consider enhanced payments to parents to drive their children to school, but this was not generally preferred by parents;

·         The team were developing a business case to determine whether increasing the number of Council owned/leased vehicles was viable to fulfil the demand in transport, or whether the minibus market had now recovered sufficiently from when the Council had to lease their own; and 

·         In summary, the team were as confident as they could be that they would be able to provide for everyone who is entitled to home to school transport in September 2024. 

The Chairman asked the following questions of Jason Salter: 

Q   Howfar forward does theteam look ahead for the future transport needs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) has prepared the attached update on behalf of the Taxi Licensing Team as of May 2024 and will give an overview of the update to the Committee at the meeting.

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) had prepared an update as at May 2024 on behalf of the Taxi Licensing Team with the agenda.  The Chairman asked the Committee to forward any questions for Tom Ince to the Clerk.

Resolved:

That the Committee note the Taxi Licensing Team update.

Claire Francis (Public Protection Manager – Community Protection) has prepared the attached update on behalf of the Public Protection Licensing Team and will give an overview at the meeting.

Claire Francis (Public Protection Manager – Community Protection) referred to the Public Protection Licensing Team update that was circulated with the agenda and highlighted the following:

·        The Licensing Officers had been carrying out unannounced visits to premises ahead of the Euros football tournament to offer advice and support and are based on the Officers own knowledge of premises likely to be showing the football matches. This information would be feedback to the Police who will then be aware of those premises showing matches;

·        The Government had confirmed an order to provide venues in England and Wales with the option to extend licensing hours on the day of any semi-final involving a home nation team or the day of the final should a home nation team be participating. The extension would be for two hours from 11pm to 1am the following day for consumption of alcohol on the premises and provision of late night refreshment;

·        During the Covid pandemic the Government passed regulations allowing them to sell alcohol for takeaway, delivery and to drink in licensed pavement areas without changing their licence – those regulations would expire on 31 March 2025 and the Government were carrying out consultation for the available options after that date;

·        Both of the new managers in the Licensing and Food Safety teams had met with the Longleat management team to discuss the events they have planned for this year and to agree an inspection protocol – they have various large scale events planned and Officers are keen to engage at the earliest opportunity;

·        Event Safety Advisory Group (ESAG) meetings had been organised for WOMAD, Existence Festival and the summer solstice and Stonehenge and Avebury – these were a really useful way for various enforcement agencies e.g. Police, Fire, Environmental Protection and Highways to understand more about organisers plans and to ask questions to ensure that the event will be safe and well organised;

·        The team restructure was completed in March and Roy Bahadoor was appointed as Principal Licensing Officer.  As he would be carrying out the day to day management of the Licensing Officers there had been a few changes to the areas the Officers would be covering, and these were showing in the weekly list of applications sent out to Councillors;

·        John Carter had retired as the Head of Public Protection at the end of May and the first recruitment attempt was not successful back and it was planned to repeat this within the next 3 to 6 months with hopefully the position being filled by the end of the year;

·        The Public Protection Service would be moving to a new ICT system called Arcus Global and would open opportunities to speed up how applicants apply for licences and will start to automate some the licence processes.  It was going live today, and it was hoped that service disruption would be minimal; and

·        The Local Government Association had produced a range of tips and advice sheets for members of their Council’s Licensing Committees which Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

The report of Claire Francis (Public Protection Manager – Community Protection) asks the Committee to note the results of the consultation undertaken and proposed amendments to the Council’s draft Statement of Licensing Policy and comments it for approval by Full Council on 22 October 2024.

Claire Francis (Public Protection Manager – Community Protection) referred to the report which asked the Committee to note the results of the consultation undertaken and proposed amendments to the Council’s draft Statement of Licensing Policy and highlighted the following:

·        At the last meeting the Committee had instructed Officers to carry out a 6 week consultation process on the proposed Statement of Licensing Policy for 2024-2029.  The consultation ran from 17 April to 29 May 2024 and the list of consultees were detailed in the report and there were also two press releases and a number of social media posts regarding the consultation;

·        35 responses were received with most comments received from the residents of Wiltshire.  Additional comments were received from licence holders, Pub Watch members and Town/Parish Councils.  Details of the comments received and the Officer responses to how these were addressed were detailed in appendix 1.  A few changes were made as a result of the consultation, with some wording being updated/tweaked to provide clarity but nothing substantial; and

·        The Committee were now being asked to approve the updated Statement of Licensing Policy as at appendix 2 and to recommend that it go forward to Full Council for approval in October 2024.

The Chairman asked if the number of consultation responses was in line with previous consultations?  Claire Francis responded that it was similar to the responses received 5 years ago with not much difference in the comments raised.  Halfway through the consultation period, the number of responses was reviewed and there was another press release and social media push to encourage more responses.

Committee Members made the following suggested changes/comments:

·        Page 68 of the agenda pack (paragraph 1.2 Key Aims) at the end of the bullet points there is nothing to say that the presumption is that licences will be granted unless there is a reason not to. The Legal Adviser confirmed that perhaps there needs to a reference to the independence of the Sub Committee making application decisions but clarified that unless there are any objections then an application would be granted.  It was agreed to make some minor wording changes here to clarify the presumption that an application will be granted subject to any objections.

·        Page 74 of the agenda pack (2.8 Drink Spiking, start of second paragraph) be amended to read ‘The Licensing Authority’ as opposed to ‘We’.  This change was agreed.

·        Page 88 of the agenda pack (under paragraph 6.6 Permitted Temporary Activities (TENS) towards the end of the fourth paragraph) some of the text was crossed out and that needed to be removed.  This change was agreed.

·        Page 89 of the agenda pack (under paragraph 6.7 Large Scale Events) states that the licensing authority requires that they are given at least six months’ notice to all for sufficient lead in time.  Could this be amended to strongly recommends instead of requires.  This change was agreed.

The Chairman reported that he had had a conversation with the Head of Public Protection before  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

The report of Claire Francis (Public Protection Manager – Community Protection) seeks to inform the Committee of the need to review, consult and adopt a new Gambling Statement of Principles by 1 January 2025 and to seek approval to commence the consultation process.

Claire Francis (Public Protection Manager – Community Protection) referred to the report which sought to inform the Committee of the need to review, consult on and adopt a new Gambling Statement of Principals by 1 January 2025 and highlighted the following:

·        The Council’s current Gambling Statement of Principles came into effect on 1 January 2022 and would cease to have effect on 31 December 2024 and so a new Statement of Principles would need to be approved by Full Council by that date;

·        The Statement of Principles must be consulted on with specific stakeholders which included the Chief Officer of Police, gambling businesses and residents of the area.  It had been proposed to run a 6 week online consultation, but after the announcement of the General Election it was felt to be prudent to delay the start of the consultation until after 4 July 2024 and was now proposed to run a 4 week consultation so as to ensure that there was adequate time for Officers to collate and consider the consultation responses before the next meeting of the Licensing Committee in September for them to approve a final version and recommend that it is adopted by Full Council in October 2024; and

·        No major changes to the Statement of Principles were proposed and the details of these were listed in appendix 2 to the report.

The Legal Adviser confirmed that it was considered that a 4-week consultation period was a reasonable length of time for this to be considered by consultees. 

A Committee Member suggested that it may be helpful to pre-warn consultees that the consultation would be starting on xx date so that they were ready to respond once the consultation was launched and asked if that could be included in the communications plans?

A Committee Member highted a typographical error on page 145 of the agenda pack and that the word sort should be corrected to sought.  It was confirmed that this would be amended.

Resolved: That the Committee

1.   Recommends that Officers carry out a 4 week consultation process on the draft Gambling Statement of Principles for 2025-27.

2.   Note that they will be required to consider recommending the finalised Gambling Statement of Principles to Full Council for adoption in October 2024.

Members are asked to note the future meetings of the Licensing Committee, all to commence at 10.30am:

16 September 2024

2 December 2024

17 March 2025.

Members noted the future meetings of the Licensing Committee, all to commence at 10.30am.

16 September 2024

2 December 2024

17 March 2025.

There were no urgent items.