Licensing and General Purposes Committee (Special)

Minutes

8 February 2023

Present:
Chair:	Councillor Susan Hall

Councillors:	Dan Anderson June Baxter Ramji Chauhan Shahania Choudhury Matthew Goodwin-Freeman Chetna Halai	Rashmi Kalu Amir Moshenson Phillip O'Dell Varsha Parmar Kanti Rabadia Samir Sumaria

Absent:	Councillor Dean Gilligan	Councillor Maxine Henson

Attendance by Reserve Members

RESOLVED: To note that there were no Reserve Members in attendance.

Declarations of Interest

RESOLVED: To note that there were no declarations of interests.

Recommended Item

Revised Statement of Licensing Policy (Licensing Act 2003)

Members received a report which set out the proposed revised Statement of Licensing Policy.

The officer outlined the content of the report which advised that the Council, in its role as licensing authority for Harrow under the Licensing Act 2003, was required to publish and keep under review a Statement of Licensing Policy. She advised that the proposed policy before Members contained minor changes to the existing policy including an update to the scheme of delegation, more information in relation to representations and temporary events and the removal and replacement of obsolete terminology and previous organisation names.

Members sought clarification on the amendments as the changes made to the policy could not be clearly seen. The officer advised that the sections on Representations and Temporary Event Notices (TEN) had been expanded and that paragraph 12.6 was an addition to ensure that applicants provided adequate information on the TEN to enable an adequate assessment to be made. The officer undertook to provide Members with a tracked change version of the revised policy so that the amendments made could be clearly seen and noted the comment that some definitions might also be helpful.

In terms of numbers of people permitted to attend a temporary event and the restrictions on the number of TEN an individual could apply for the officer advised that there were restrictions on both the number an individual and the premises could request. The Licensing team would make an assessment using the TEN criteria to determine the number permitted to attend.

A Member commented that there had only been 4 responses received to the public consultation which, given the size of Harrow, was a low response rate. The Member questioned the consultation process and was advised that consultation letters had been sent to licence holders and whilst accepting that the response rate was low this was not uncommon.

In response to a Member’s query as to what residents could do if there were concerns about a licensed premises as many of the complaints he received were about this issue, the officer advised the approach taken was set out in the Act. The Licensing Team were focussed on proactive work but did not receive many complaints. She indicated that there may be a need to ensure that there was clear signposting for residents in terms of making complaints. Residents could submit their concerns via a webform which would then be allocated to a Licensing Officer to deal with as soon as possible, but within 5 working days, with an escalation to the police if appropriate.

Following requests from Members, the officer undertook to provide details of the number of licensing applications currently being dealt with, how many were received on annual basis and how many had been closed. The officer advised that there were specific timescales within the Act in terms of applications and these were met by the team. Applications would only be submitted to a Licensing Panel if there were representations that could not be resolved by the team.

Resolved to RECOMMEND (unanimously): To Council

That the revised Statement of Licensing Policy be approved.