Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Office, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1BN

Contact: Luciane Bowker  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

7.

Appointment of Vice-Chairman

To appoint a Vice-Chairman to the Licensing and Appeals Committee for the remainder of the 2016/2017 municipal year.

Minutes:

Councillor Michael Firmager was appointed Vice-chairman of the Licensing and Appeals Committee for the remainder of the 2016/17 municipal year.

8.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

An apology for absence was submitted from Councillor Chris Singleton.

9.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 136 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 8 June 2016.

 

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 8 June 2016 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

10.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

A declaration of interest was submitted by Councillor Bill Soane on the basis that he hired out refrigerator equipment for events in the Henley area.

11.

Public Question Time

To answer any public questions

 

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

 

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

 

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

12.

Member Question Time

To answer any member questions

Minutes:

There were no Member questions.

13.

Licensing Act 2003 - Policy Review pdf icon PDF 173 KB

The Committee to consider a report proposing a review of the Cumulative Effect Policy.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report which was set out on agenda pages 7-33.  The report was seeking Members’ views in relation to a possible review of the Council’s Licensing Policy in respect to the addition of a Cumulative Impact Policy for the specific area of Remenham.

 

Paul Anstey, Joint Service Delivery Manager, West Berkshire and Wokingham, explained that the cumulative impact of the high number of events held in the Henley area had been a reoccurring issue over the years.  The residents had requested the consideration of a Cumulative Impact Policy (CIP) relating to future premises licence applications on the river land in the Parish of Remenham from Henley Bridge to Temple Island.

 

Officers were seeking the Committees’ approval to commission an external review of evidence, to be carried out by legal experts, to support or not the adoption of the CIP.  Paul felt it was necessary to address this issue through the correct mechanism and this report was the first step towards a formal review of the possible adoption of a CIP.  The results of this independent review would be brought back to the Committee for discussion.

 

Paul informed Members that this was not the first time that this issue had been considered by the Licensing and Appeals Committee; however it remained a concern to local residents.  Paul stated that the geography of the area meant this would be an unusual CIP if compared to other areas in the country. The circumstances were very specific to the Remenham area, it related to a number of licences issued alongside each other throughout the year, and not to specific permanent premises.

 

During the discussion of the item the following points were made:

 

·           Councillor Smith asked if this policy would encompass the whole Borough or if it would be applied just to Remenham.  Paul’s view was that the policy would be attached to the whole borough but it would be applied to Remenham specifically.  Should another area request its implementation, this would be reviewed individually;

·           The Chairman stated that from his research, he was uncertain that the policy would encompass the whole Borough.  Paul stated that this was something the experts involved in the review would be able to clarify;

·           The Chairman asked for clarity from a legal perspective on the scope of the policy;

·           Some Members suggested that the policy could include appendixes for different areas in the Borough;

·           Paul explained that the way in which licences were issued at the moment meant that Officers could not take into account the number of existing licences in the area.  The CIP would provide a mechanism to take that into account when issuing new licences;

·           In response to a question, Julia O’Brien, Acting Team Manager Licensing stated that there were altogether around 13-14 days in the year when events were held in the Henley area;

·           Some Members were of the view that the Council should not spend money carrying out this review as it only affected one area of the Borough  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

14.

Meetings of appeals hearings pdf icon PDF 65 KB

The Committee to be informed of the meetings of the Licensing and Appeals Hearings Committee since the beginning of the year.

Minutes:

This item was not discussed.