Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Barker, Bond, Deacon, Pearce Savva and Lamprecht.

Members of the Council are invited to identify any personal or prejudicial interests relevant to items on the agenda. Please refer to the guidance note attached to the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive and confirm the minutes from the last meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 7 November 2011.

1.1    Minutes

AGREED subject to deadline for the consultation process on the Licensing Policy statement being amended to show 13^th rather than 3^rd January 2012 (Min. 397 (7b) refers), the minutes of the Licensing Committee held on Monday 7 November 2011 be confirmed and signed as a correct record

1.2    Matters Arising

NOTED that the draft response to the consultation on Regulated Entertainment (Min.397 (3) refers) had been amended as requested following the last meeting.  A copy of the amended response had been provided for the Chairman.  Whilst officers recognised the request for this to have been sent to all members of the Committee, the chairman advised that he had been comfortable all of the points raised at the last meeting had been covered.

To receive a report from the Director of Environment which, following on from the Licensing Committee held on 7 November 2011, considers any responses received to the Licensing Consultation 2011.         (Report No.187)

TO FOLLOW

RECEIVED a report from the Director of Environment (No.187) outlining the response to the borough wide public consultation that had been undertaken on proposals within the Licensing Policy Statement.  The process followed on from the update provided for the Licensing Committee on 7 November 2011.

NOTED

1.      The consultation period had run from 14 October 2011 to 13 January 2012 and had involved 995 consultation letters and emails being sent out to Licensed Premises, Residents Associations, Responsible Authorities and Members.

2.      The consultation had been focussed on the following licensing policy proposals:

a.      Introduction of a Cumulative Impact Policy for Edmonton, Enfield Highway, Enfield Town & Southgate, as detailed in section 3.1.1 of the report;

b.      Sexual Entertainment Venues - Preventing businesses being granted an automatic right to provide “live displays or performances involving nudity” on up to 11 separate occasions a year without a licence;

c.      Introduction of a policy to cover licensable events taking place during the Olympic & Paralympic Games between June and September 2012;

3.      A total of 8 responses had been received to the consultation (representing a 0.8% return).  A table had been provided as Appendix 1 of the report detailing the responses made, with a majority of responses (over 50% in each case) being supportive of the 3 licensing proposals.

4.      A total of 4 comments (as detailed in Appendix 2 of the report) had been received in respect of the 3 licensing proposals, none of which contained any policy or legal implications.

5.      In response to comments by members of the Committee it was confirmed that:

a.      the Cumulative Impact Policy did not represent a blanket refusal policy, with each application in the areas covered still needing to be assessed and considered on its own merits;

b.      subject to approval by the Committee, the 3 proposals would need to be recommended on to Council for formal approval on 28 March 2012 with a view to the new policy proposals becoming effective from 1 April 2012.  Current and new applicants would be advised that the new policy would apply (subject to agreement by Council) to consideration of any outstanding or new applications with effect from the 1 April 2012.  The new policy would not apply to existing licences, unless these became subject to review on or after 1 April 2012.

c.      Following the update in b. above members were advised that there were currently 12 licensing applications in the mediation process, although not all of these would be covered by the new licensing proposals.

d.      officers were confident, in respect of the low response rate, that the consultation letters and emails had been received by consultees.

AGREED

(1)    To approve, having considered the response to the consultation process, the following 3 Licensing Policy proposals:

(a)    Introduction of a Cumulative Impact Policy for Edmonton, Enfield Highway, Enfield Town & Southgate;

(b)    Sexual Entertainment Venues - Preventing businesses being granted an automatic right to provide “live displays or performances involving nudity” on up to 11 separate occasions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 603.