Agenda and draft minutes
PDF 317 KBVenue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions
Contact: Email: t.meadows@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk
Webcast: View the webcast
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Appointment of Chair
Additional documents: Minutes: Resolved that Councillor Mark Lithgow be appointed as Chair of the Licensing Committee for the remainder of the Municipal Year. |
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Appointment of Vice Chair
Additional documents: Minutes: Resolved that Councillor Janet Lloyd be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Licensing Committee for the remainder of the Municipal Year.
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Apologies
To receive any apologies for absence. Additional documents: Minutes: At this point in the meeting Cllr’s Johnson and Wakefield left the meeting.
Apologies were received from Councillors Firmin, Trollope-Bellew, S Lees and Whetlor. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting of the Licensing Committee
To approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the Committee. Additional documents: Minutes: (Minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 21 March 22 circulated with the agenda)
Resolved that the minutes of the Licensing Committee held on 21 March 22 be confirmed as a correct record.
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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.) Additional documents: 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:-
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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.
We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, but you can also access them on the Somerset West and Taunton webcasting website. Additional documents: Minutes: No members of the public had requested to speak on any item on the agenda. |
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Licensing Update report
Additional documents: Minutes: During the discussion the following points were raised:-
· Cllr Lithgow stated that the reasons for consultancy was because we had reimplemented our taxi forum. Conversations with Taxi drivers and the Taxi firms would be had so that they can raise any concerns. · Councillor queried whether this forum would include West Somerset as well as SWT area? Cllr Lithgow responded that this invite had gone out to all Taxi firms including West Somerset but the take up had been relatively small with only three or four people attending. He stated that we were hoping that once the word got out the taxi service would realise that they have a view and a voice and were listened to to enable them to take part in making Policy changes. Hopefully this would be well attended in the future. · Concerns were raised again over the level of participation for this forum. It was stated that previously there were 50 plus attendees. Were we getting notifications out there to increase participation for this forum? At present the meetings were being held via Zoom. Cllr Lithgow responded that the Licensing Manager was looking for ways to improve communications to increase participation. · Concerns were raised with the fuel impact to taxi drivers. Would there be any consideration given to the varying of fare charges temporarily until the situation improved. Cllr Lithgow responded that this needed to be looked at again. Conversations were being had on when a review would take place. This would need to go back to the Executive to be altered. · It was stated in the report that Taxi’s had to be less than 3 years old was this correct? The Officer responded that information was correct, but we were looking to remove that restriction. · Councillor raised a query on Direct response travel in different parts of the country. This was run by the co-operation of taxi firms, local bus services, County Council vehicles, social club vehicles ect. How would taxi cabs fit into that with regards to how licensing was concerned? The Officer stated that this comment would be fed back to the Licensing Manager for a response.
Resolved that the update reported was noted. |
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Street trading policy working group
Additional documents: Minutes: During the discussion the following points were raised:-
· Councillor Weston stated that she hoped that the working group took account of equality issues especially with pavements licenses and people trading in the street. This needed to be carefully looked at how people with mobility and sensory impairments were accommodated within that situation. · The committee were happy that the Street Trading Policy Working Group was being actioned.
Resolved that the committee agree to the following recommendation.
2.1 to form a Working Group, in accordance with Council protocols, to assist with the revising of the Council’s policy on street trading.
2.2 Consider expanding the membership of the Working Group to include the Portfolio Holder for Asset Management and Economic Development, on account of the impact of street trading in town centres and how this links to the Corporate Strategy.
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