Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - West Somerset House. View directions

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Chair

2.

Appointment of Vice Chair

3.

Apologies

4.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Licensing Committee pdf icon PDF 153 KB

    To note the minutes of the previous meetings of the Taunton Deane Borough Council Licensing Committee held on 21 November 2018 and the West Somerset Council Licensing Committee held on 27 November 2018.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Minutes of the meetings of the Taunton Deane Borough Council Licensing Committee held on 21 November 2018 and the West Somerset Council Licensing Committee held on 27 November 2018 circulated with the agenda)

     

    Resolved that the minutes were noted for information only.

     

5.

Declarations of Interest

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr M Barr

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr P Bolton

    All Items

    Minehead

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr C Ellis

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Lisgo

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr M Peters

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Whetlor

    All Items

    Watchet

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

    Councillors K Durdan and A Hadley further declared that they were licence holders.

    Councillor S Wakefield further declared that she was acting on behalf of a customer with an active licensing application.

     

    Councillors M Bolton, K Durdan and A Hadley advised they had been lobbied on agenda item six in regards to zero emission vehicles.

6.

Public Participation

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

    Minutes:

    Mr Charlesworth spoke on Agenda Item 4. 

    He spoke with regards to the approval of the West Somerset Council Licensing Committee Minutes for the meeting held on 27 November 2018.

    He stated that the minutes had been signed off as correct without the approval from the Committee.  He further commented that he law stated in the Local Government Act 1972, section 12, part 6, paragraph 39, that all questions that arose before a Local Authority should be decided by a majority of the members of the Authority present and voted thereon at a meeting of the Authority.  He stated that there was never any meeting of the Committee, the meeting scheduled for the 13 March 2019 was cancelled.  The law stated that they had to be approved before they were signed off, which had not been done, law broken.  He had received an email which confirmed that the minutes had been signed as a correct record from the Governance and Democracy Case Manager.

     

    Later in the meeting, the Licensing Specialist responded and explained to the Committee that a complaint had been received regarding the alleged inaccuracy of the minutes and the process in which they had been approved, the Specialist Manager had explained when the complaint was made, that legal advice had been taken prior to the approval of the minutes and that a different process was taken and the Council was satisfied that a proper process had been followed.  The Specialist Manager did not support the claims that any inaccuracies had been minuted from the meeting, therefore the complaint was not upheld and the complainant was advised if he wanted to take it further, to approach the Local Government Ombudsman.

7.

Licensing Update Report pdf icon PDF 148 KB

    This report provides an update on the activities of the council’s licensing service, changes in licensing legislation and other licensing related matters.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

    ·         Councillors queried whether Licensing covered Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO).

    The Licensing Specialist confirmed that PSPOs were covered by the Licensing Service.

    ·         Councillors requested that the Watchet PSPO was updated because they were concerned it covered the whole of the town and should be for specific areas.

    The Licensing Specialist would note the request and advised it was on his list of work that was to be undertaken.

    ·         The Chair was aware of the staffing issues faced by the Licensing Service and queried whether there was anything that the Committee could do to assist with the staffing level.

    The Licensing Specialist appreciated that the new structure was not very clear and that the new operating model had hoped that customers would be able to self-serve more on the website through Firmstep, which had not been implemented for their service area yet.  The Case Managers were also still using two computer systems which was a challenge.  More managerial duties had been placed on the Specialist and Case Manager Lead, which meant that firm deadlines could not be set for policy work due to the constantly changing priorities.  It was confirmed that a temporary member of staff was being recruited, to assist over a limited period of time.

    ·         The Chair was disappointed that the Portfolio Holder was not present at the meeting.

    ·         Concern was raised on Firmstep and that not all the processes had been added yet.

    The Licensing Specialist advised that Firmstep was in operation but was taking time to bed in and officers were generally happy with the way it was working.  He gave an example of how it could work in the future once the back office systems were in place.

    ·         Councillors thought that the Licensing forms were supposed to be in the first group of forms to be used.

    Yes that was correct but after tests had been carried out, they highlighted that they were not working properly and they were awaiting for the relevant action to be taken to correct them.

    ·         Councillors had been involved in a Task and Finish Group that had carried out work on the taxi policies and queried whether that approach would be used again or whether the policy review would be officer led.  Councillors wanted to be involved in the review.

    The Licensing Specialist welcomed Councillors input and would look into the option of setting up a Task and Finish Group.

    ·         Concern was raised that personal licence cards that had been issued prior to April 2019, still had the West Somerset Council and West Somerset District Council logos on them and that they would no longer be recognised as a valid licence by other Authorities.

    The Licensing Specialist confirmed that the personal licences no longer had an expiry date, so the cards would remain valid.  They had taken the decision not to re-issue all the cards based on the cost to the Council.  However, if a licence holder wished to have a new card,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Licensing Forward Plan

    To receive items for the Forward Plan.

    Minutes:

    Requests for the Forward Plan had been covered in the debate on agenda item seven, the Licensing Update Report.

     

    Councillors were reminded that if they had an item they wanted to add to the agenda, that they should send their requests to the Governance and Democracy Case Manager.

     

    Resolved that the Licensing Committee Forward Plan be noted.