Sergeant Leighton Williams and Martin O’Neill (Wiltshire Police Licensing Officer) have been invited to attend the meeting to provide an update on behalf of the Police Licensing Team to the Committee and will also give details of the current structure, partnership working and new initiatives.
Minutes:
Sgt Leighton Williams and Martin O’Neill (Wiltshire Police Licensing Officer) had been invited to provide an update on behalf of the Police Licensing Team to the Committee. Sgt Williams highlighted the following:
· Late in 2015 Wiltshire Police changed to Community Policing teams taking away the neighbourhood element and putting it back into the response teams. After 4 years there was a review of this model and it identified that Neighbour Officers were required - that was the role carried out by Sgt Williams – a Neighbourhood Sgt, once of several across the force. That role also supervises the Police Licensing Officer (Martin O’Neill). Prior to the changes the Police Licensing Officer roles were supervised by a Sgt with a large portfolio and it was identified that there was a need for them to have top cover from those above in Sgt and Inspector roles;
· The Neighbourhood teams were introduced in December 2019 and the Police Licensing Officers now come under that team. There were obvious benefits to this – the Police Community Support Officers who are the eyes and ears on the ground feed into the intelligence and information sharing picture and assist the Police Licensing Officers by conducting tasks for and with the Licensing Officers e.g. premises visits etc. Operationally it gives them more support and there is a more joined up approach and the information sharing is there, so it all works well; and
· The Neighbourhoods team have a weekly tasking and briefing meeting which the Licensing Officers sit in on this then produces a weekly priority list and tasking and briefing slides which are shared with Officers at the start of every shift. E.g. if there are particular premises that are causing concern, the Licensing Officer would raise it as a concern, highlight it to the Police Officers that cover that area and also put a slide up for it to be briefed to them. That then gives the Licensing Officers the top cover and support and allows the Sgt to assess and check that the visits are being carried out in a more accountable way.
Martin O’Neill (Police Licensing Officer) who is also a retired Police Officer was then invited to speak. Martin highlighted the following:
· The Police feel that they have a really strong partnership working relationship with teams at Wiltshire Council, particularly with Licensing, Trading Standards and Immigration;
· In the future they would like to carry out initiatives such as looking at underage sales, promoting Pubwatch as it’s a useful vehicle for licensees to share their experiences and help keep the night time economy going and for it to be safe; and
· As the Police Licensing Officers are attending the Neighbourhood tasking meetings already referred to, they are able to identify premises that may be used for certain acts of criminality and they can then be targeted appropriately to keep an eye and if necessary, intervene or enforce.
Sgt Williams then spoke about the future of Licensing within Wiltshire Police. Before lockdown the organisation was taking a stance on the role of the Police Licensing Officer, revisiting the risk assessments and looking at what was expected of the role. In the current circumstances that work has stalled but going forward a full review will be conducted of the role with some requirements to change the stance in relation to hours worked, more support on the ground and the Sgt role would be supporting the Officers with external visits and meetings. It was hoped that there would be a greater presence of Wiltshire Police at all sorts of meetings, including Pubwatch and Licensing meetings that perhaps need to be staffed by Police and to continue with the good collaborative working.
There were many fears of the re-opening of licensing establishments over the weekend of 4/5 July 2020 following the Covid restrictions. Sgt Williams was involved with the great partnership working with Wiltshire Council and their Licensing Officers who were working with the Police Licensing Officer to carry out visits and this was beneficial to the Police Officers. The knowledge of the Licensing Officers allowed the strategic commanders of the operation to nip in the bud any issues by sending in a Licensing Officer, paired up with any Police Officers to really identify and tackle the problems. It was felt that this was a great example of collaborative working and hoped that it could continue further in the future.
The Chairman asked Sgt Williams to explain where in relation to premises re-opening and to whom does the responsibility stand for the issue of enforcement/ assessment of non-compliance of Covid regulations lie.
Sgt Williams responded that he felt it was all around collaborative working and going forward that enforcement would be a partnership approach. Any quick response calls coming during the night time economy would be down to the response officers and the neighbourhood’s teams. Other issues that were not as time critical and would require a problem-solving approach would be worked through with partners in order to prevent any re-offending. The sole role of Neighbourhood Sgt is to reduce demand on the Police, therefore if they can work with our partners to all reduce demand that it where we should be headed in the future.
A Committee Member asked the following:
Q Can I ask about the views of the Police when Licensing Act applications are submitted. There had been some recent Sub Committee hearings where some of the parties to the case had thought that there might have been response from the Police in relation to the application. Please could you explain how you might use your local knowledge and connections to comment on licensing applications.
A Sgt Williams responded on behalf of Martin O’Neill who had temporary lost connection to the meeting - Usually the application would come in and they would assess it from a local perspective for any concerns. The difficulties that Police encounter are around staffing capacity to be able to assist and be available to attend hearings. Sgt Williams was surprised to hear that there has been no comment to licensing applications submitted.
The Councillor reported that it wasn’t felt that there had been no “comment” from the Police relating to an application but that there has been no objection (representation) from the Police whereas the public might have expected there to be so. She was trying to understand how any response that the Police might give to an application would link into local intelligence as well.
Sgt Williams reported that going forward it would be his expectation that there would be Police comment on an application, particularly in relation to more difficult premises and a representation would be submitted when required. He may need to look at and assess resourcing issues around attendance at meetings.
The Councillor clarified that it was not always clear if the Police had seen the application and not responded or that they had seen it but did not wish to make any comments or a relevant representation. The Councillor felt that it was about public perception so that they know that the Police were taking their concerns seriously, rather than just not commenting at all. It was suggested that the Police consider positive responses as even neutral comments are quite helpful.
The Chairman suggested that some work could be done on the wording of responses when applications are sent out to responsible authorities.
The Chairman then invited the Wiltshire Council Officers present to give an update to the Committee on their work and commitment of partnership working with Wiltshire Police.
Linda Holland – Licensing Manager highlighted the following:
· Covid had been a challenge for all, it was felt that the Licensing teams partnership working had been immensely successful;
· Since the implementation of Neighbourhood Policing Teams, the collaborative working has been a lot more positive with Police Officers on the ground engaging;
· There are a number of grey areas in licensing under Covid and how the guidance is interpreted but Officers would continue to look at how they could provide an advisory and guidance service to the premises and would only seek to use enforcement if we had to;
· The team usually receive a large volume of licensing applications – this did drop off during the initial stages of the Covid lockdown but again applications were now coming in in high numbers. The Police are consulted on all relevant applications and give responses when they feel it is appropriate, but these would usually be targeted and focused on applications that they feel they have something to raise. It is suggested that we can learn from this and perhaps add something to the report that Officers prepare for the Sub Committee to indicate that the Police have responded and made no comments on the application and did not wish to submit a relevant representation;
· Officers had been carrying out advisory visits to premises to ensure that they had Covid secure measures in place. The biggest challenge had been around events and what can and cannot take place. The Government guidance changes frequently (sometimes daily about what is and is not permitted and our Officers have worked with the Police and Premises Licence holders to help advise them so that their events can be run safely if they are able to do so at the current time;
· Positive working through all of the Public Protection teams will benefit all. If the local businesses are supported it is hoped that they would engage with the Council’s tandem working with partners to provide positive outcomes. Sadly, some business choose not to engage, and there are tools to manage that – licence reviews are possible but Officers would prefer that premises licence holders are informed and supported rather than going down an enforcement route;
· The Police have two Licensing Officers and Wiltshire Council has a team of seven Officers that support each other well. For Operation Quantum carried out in July 2020, Officers carried out 175 observation and checks over the first weekend of the re-opening of pubs etc and 165 visits on the second weekend. All Officers were positively engaging with the premises – a few needed more guidance, but the majority understood what was required of them to be Covid secure;
· During the Covid period all animal inspections were postponed for 4 months and these had just restarted. All 300 licenced animal premises received a 3-month extension to their licences;
· All licensed premises with annual licence fees due during the initial Covid period (end of May to September) were given a reprieve and licence fees were not being requested to be paid during that time; and
· Officers had received a lot of positive feedback around the support that was being providing to the premises.
Adrian Hampton (Head of Highway Operation) highlighted the following:
· Thanks should be given to the former Manager of the Service (Julie Anderson-Hill) for her management of the excellent team that Adrian had now taken on. Tom Ince and Kevin Oliver should also be thanked for leading on licensing and events management as they had had to undertake a huge amount of additional work during the Covid period;
· Our Team agree that partnership working is vital as it avoids us replicating work and wasting time that would not be achieved if we did not work together;
· Another challenge had been the introduction of pavement licencing and ensuring that our teams work together to consider highway safety, reallocation of road space for pedestrians etc;
· Officers had also been working to support communities and where there may have previously just been one contact, there now may be multiple contacts. Also, many communities had set up their own support groups to work with the Council; and
· Officers had seen the emerging guidance and had sought to move ahead of it to benefit Wiltshire communities.
Tom Ince – Principal Compliance Officer) highlighted the following:
· Feedback from the taxi trade informed us that their business had dropped by about 80% in first week of lockdown. It was felt that the Council needed to do something positive to support them during the difficult time, so it was agreed that temporary 3 month licences would be issued for all drivers and vehicles that were due to renew between April and June 2020 free of charge. This was to keep the industry moving and reduce the financial burden for drivers and vehicle owners during that time;
· For the small team of just 4 Officers this doubled the workload during that period. In July Officers looked forward to recovery and considered the next phase, it was recognised that consideration should be given to processes for attendance at Council premises for vehicle inspections and licence checks as clearly this could not happen in the Covid environment. All vehicle inspections were suspended for April to June. Officers devised a new process for existing drivers to be able to renew their licence without physical attendance. This was obviously a time saving process for drivers and Council Officers and so that this efficiency continues – this will be the process going forward;
· From 1 July, vehicle inspections were recommenced. This was an amended process where the driver does not need to get out of their vehicle. Obviously, this ensured that there was less staff exposure to any Covid risk, and the team were slowing getting their taxi licencing regimes back to normal;
· There had been a reduction in driver numbers which fell (following first month of lockdown) and the same with the numbers of vehicles being licenced, Over the last month there had been a slight increase in driver numbers and vehicles being licensed and it was hoped that this meant that the trade was in a recovery phase;
· As part of the Environment and Planning Bill of 2020 the Government had introduced the Pavement Licence to aid the economic recovery of the hospitality sector. Wiltshire Council implemented this prior to the legislation being approved, taking the lead on this and approached the relevant businesses in the hospitality sector to offer them the option of a Pavement Licence. Whilst there was the ability to make a charge for this Licence the Council decided to offer this for free to support the businesses in Wiltshire. There was a quick 10-day turnaround process (not the historic 30-day process). Approximately 20 applications had been received, 12 of those were were in Salisbury. To date, no applications had been refused although some premises needed a bit of guidance to look at plans and advice provided on social distancing measures etc. Officers were also working with colleagues in Highways, particularly in the re-allocation of road space programme to ensure that any licences that were being issued were not having a detrimental impact on that programme.
The Chairman thanked all the Officers and their teams for all the work carried out during this difficult period and their continued collaboration with the Police. The Chair also thanked Sgt Williams and Martin O’Neill for attending the meeting and offered that they would be invited to attend future meetings and provide updates via the Clerk as required.
Resolved:
That the update from Wiltshire Police and Council Officers be noted by the Committee.