Any other items of business, which in the opinion of the Chairman, should be taken as a matter of urgency. Urgent items of a confidential nature may be considered under Part II of this agenda.
Minutes:
The Chairman asked Officers present to give an update from their teams that they felt were relevant to the Committee:
Linda Holland (Licensing Manager) reported that they had recently recruited to two posts within their team – a Technical Support Officer and a Licensing Officer. Moving forward there were software changes due next year that would involve working on and that would further reduce their capacity.
There had been no significant issues with the current football world cup games being shown at premises and she was aware that some of the hospitality sectors were under strain with the lower levels of customer numbers that had not really picked up since the pandemic. They were working with Police colleagues to promote positivity and to support the premises and their customers to operate safely so as to avoid any issues particularly with anti-social behaviour.
The levels of temporary events notice applications was at 185 for December which was the same as pre Covid levels although she noted that there were changes in the way that patrons were frequenting premises and that there were pressures for all relating to the cost of living and for premises having issues with their own increased costs and staffing difficulties. It was felt that this was an ongoing challenge for the industry and that they would do what they could to support them going forward.
A Committee member asked if Officers had received as many applications as they had expected for the Queen’s jubilee celebrations in June? Linda Holland reported that they had not.
Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) reported that he would share information to the Clerk around guidance of street cash collections so that all Councillors were aware of the requirements should they receive any concern about this from their constituents. They had anticipated a rise in applications for permits for street collection permits in 2022 but this had not materialised. They had an issue with a Santa Train/Float collection in the north of the County who had not been granted a street collection permit. Street collection and House to House Collection permits are free, anyone asking for donations either from house to house or on the streets would require a permit and this would ensure there was transparency of where the collection money going to ensure that the nominated charity was benefitting.
Changes had been implemented to the charges for street trading consents and although this was up 30% up from last year positive, 10% traders had ceased in the last few months with some reporting that even with a busy town centre location they could not make it pay because of the lower footfall. Markets were also struggling to retain their traders and they anticipated that there would be further difficulties going in to the next quarter as things had changed and how people shop had changed post pandemic.
The numbers of incidences of fly tipping had fallen and two new Officers would be starting in the new year and their focus would be on education around fly tipping.
The Chairman thanked all teams for their updates.
Resolved:
That the Licensing Committee note the team’s updates.