Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Christine Mason.

There were no substitutes present at the meeting.

Members of the public who live or work in the District are invited to put one question or statement of not more than three minutes duration relating to items in Part 1 of the agenda only. If a question is asked and answered within three minutes the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary question that arises from the reply. A person wishing to speak must register to speak at least 15 minutes before the time the meeting is scheduled to start. There is an overall time limit of 15 minutes for public speaking which may be extended at the Chairman’s discretion.

There were no questions/statements from members of the public.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 30 October 2017 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 October 2017 were unanimously accepted as an accurate record and were signed by the Chairman. 

The Chairman invited the Service Manager (Environmental Health) to update Members on the actions identified within Minute No 82 (Report No: LIC/FH/17/011 Local Air Quality – Progress Report 2016/2017).

The Officer advised the Committee that the two letters had been sent as agreed.  Pleasingly Norfolk County Council had responded and agreed to attend future Brandon Transport Group meetings. 

Unfortunately, whilst Highways England had also responded to their letter, they had been able to provide a conclusive date on which the POPE report would be published.  The Chairman assured Members that the Council would continue to chase this matter and apply pressure until the report was published.

The Service Manager also informed the Committee that additional diffusion tubes had been located within Brandon at the end of 2017 in consultation with Councillor Lukaniuk.  Councillor Lukaniuk gave thanks to the Officers concerned.

Report No: LIC/FH/18/001

This report provided an update on the current status of the work and set out future development areas that fell within the scope of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee.

The report also considered the impact on this work as a result of the proposal to establish a single council for West Suffolk in 2019.

Considerable discussion took place on the impact the single council implementation would have on both the democratic and service provision as the two Licensing Authorities became a single entity.

Members raised concern at the need to ensure local knowledge and experience was in place going forward. 

The Chairman highlighted the importance of having a clear direction under the one Cabinet Member there would be for the regulatory function. He also made reference to the ongoing work of the Future Governance Steering Group.

Members recognised that the formation of West Suffolk Council would result in external (as well as internal) implications for licence holders, such as needing to amend their own literature.  To this end, the Chairman advised the Committee that he had asked Licensing Officers to establish an implementation period of change for rollout in respect of both the service and licensees. 

The Committee discussed the importance of ensuring that which was best practice was retained under the single council. 

The Chairman proposed that informal discussions be held jointly with St Edmundsbury’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee in order to establish those elements which affected the whole of West Suffolk that could be treated uniformly, and those that could potentially require an area-based approach.  The Committee as a whole supported this way forward.

Particular topics such as hackney carriage livery were touched on by Members as an example of where policy currently differed between the two Authorities.  The Committee considered the use of livery to be extremely important to the local community and something that would need to be clarified prior to the formation of single council.

In order to take this and other discussion forward jointly, it was agreed that Licensing Officers would compile overarching statistics/data on the licensing function for both Committees to consider (this would include information such as the number of licensed premises and registered hackney carriages in both the District and Borough).  This would be considered alongside the proposed implementation timetable/programme.

In the interim, the Chairman encouraged the Committee to relay any further comments/thoughts to him directly.

With the vote being unanimous, it was

RESOLVED:

That the content of Report No: LIC/FH/18/001 and the related discussion be noted.