Minutes:
The Chairman made the following announcements:
1. Additional Minutes of Licensing Sub Committees for signing
Three additional sets of Licensing Sub Committee minutes that were not available at the time of Agenda dispatch are presented for confirmation; these are Northern Area Licensing Sub Committee 21 March 2011 and 11 May 2011 (2 day hearing) and 21 June 2011 and Western Area 1 August 2011.
2. Licensing Sub Committee Visits
This subject was raised at the last meeting of the Committee. It is the Officer’s view that site visits should be considered on an application by application basis.
For existing licences, the location would usually be known by one or all of the Members. For new applications and one off events an informal site visit could be arranged prior to the hearing if Members consider this to be necessary. The initiative for this clearly lies with Members.
3. Protocol for informing the local member on Licensing Act applications
The following protocol will be operated for informing the local member when a Licensing application is received:
When an application is received by the Licensing Department or a Counter Notice is issued in respect of a TENS application then this notification will be added to the Wiltshire Council website and each week in the Elected Wire is a link to all Licensing applications that have been received. The local Councillor whose division it affects will then be personally notified either by telephone or email by the Licensing Team and advised of how they may make a relevant representation.
A Councillor can become an interested party by making a relevant representation within the statutory time limits and then can speak at any subsequent Licensing Sub Committee hearing. Also a Councillor could be requested to be the spokesperson on behalf of another person/s that has made a relevant representation and speak at a Sub Committee hearing to express the views of that person.
4. Legislation Changes – Tobacco Vending Machines
From 1st October 2011, the law will change to make it illegal to sell tobacco products directly to the public from vending machines in England. Guidance has been prepared on ending tobacco sales from vending machines in England for businesses with vending machines on site and was circulated as a handout at the meeting.
5. Update on Organisational Changes
There have been a number of changes to the structure of the Public Protection Service and Mandy Bradley, Service Director gave an update to the Committee on those.
Mandy circulated to the Committee a revised structure chart and contact details for those Officers involved in Licensing in each of the areas. The structure had been reshaped so that there were now two Heads of Service. John Carter had moved across to Food and Environment and Steve Clover (introduced at the meeting) managed Commercial and Communities which Licensing now comes under.
Kate Golledge (Public Protection Manager, North and West, Safer Communities and Licensing) was to be the first point of contact for Licensing.
The Chairman wished to record a vote of thanks to John Carter who had led the Licensing team since April 2009.
Members of the Committee requested a briefing of how the new roles would work in practice and requested that the intranet contact directory be populated with information on each officer’s area of responsibility.