Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the Licensing and Regulatory Board meeting held on 2 December 2014 and the Licensing Sub-Committee meeting held on 15 December 2014 were confirmed as correct.

The Chair welcomed Members to the first meeting of the Board since the implementation of the new sub-committee arrangements for the determination of applications.

Officers clarified a number of points regarding the new arrangements for the Board and the Sub-Committee and the following points were made:

(i)  That a schedule for serving on the Sub-Committee should be produced;

(ii)  That all Board Members should be advised of the details of Sub-Committee meetings in order that they may attend as observers;

(iii)  That the Board retains the right to determine applications in certain specific circumstances;

(iv)  That Board Members were entitled to be present in an observer capacity when applications within their wards were being considered.

The Licensing Officer reported on the two appeals that had been made to the Magistrates Court in respect of the following decisions:

(i)  Review of Premises Licence - Fountane Restaurant, 4 Princess Parade, New Road, Dagenham, RM10 9LS (Minute 4 of the Licensing and Regulatory Board, 17 June 2014)

(ii)  Review of Premises Licence - Ship and Shovel Public House, Ripple Road, Barking (Minute 20 of the Licensing and Regulatory Board, 21 October 2014)

In respect of (i) above, it was noted that the Court had reduced the period of suspension from three months to one month in recognition of the applicant’s compliance with the other conditions imposed by the Board.  The Licensing Officer confirmed that each party had been made responsible for their own costs, which recognised that the Board’s original decision had been sound.

With regard to (ii), it was noted that the appeal had been listed for 24 March 2015.

The Licensing Officer presented a summary of all applications received for the period 1 October to 31 December 2014.  In response to Members’ comments, the Licensing Officer confirmed that the presentation of information would be enhanced in future reports.

The Board received a report on the start time of future meetings in the light of a proposal to be considered at the next meeting of the Assembly regarding the default start time for all Council meetings.

It was agreed that future meetings of the Board be held at 7.00pm.  In respect of meetings of the Sub-Committee, the Democratic Services Manager explained that a degree of flexibility would need to be retained as the arrangements would have to take account of the number of applications to be dealt with, the complexity of each application, the public interest in an application and the availability of the relevant parties.