| 20 | The Licensing Act 2003 required local authorities to produce a Statement of Licensing Policy by 7th January 2005, to be reviewed triennially following the same consultation process as set out in the Act. No requests had been made to amend the Borough's licensing policy at its original adoption in December 2004 and during its first review in 2007.
At its meeting on 16th September 2010, the Licensing Committee was advised that the policy was again the subject of public consultation as part of the three-yearly review.
The responsibility for determining the review was a matter excluded from Executive responsibilities under the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000, however, and upon the advice of the Monitoring Officer and Head of Legal and Property Services the Committee agreed to defer consideration of the proposed revisions to the policy until the consultation exercise had been completed.
In doing so, the Committee would have an opportunity to comment upon the consultation findings before the revised Statement of Policy was recommended to Council for approval on 9th December 2010.
The report now before the Committee set out the relevant statutory powers, the issues to be considered and any implications. Annex 1 to the report set out the revised draft Statement of Licensing Policy which incorporated changes due to new and amended legislation, highlighted for ease of reference. Annex 2 set out a summary of the responses from the consultation exercise on the revised policy, together with the officers' comments in reply.
The Committee noted that further revisions were likely to be necessary to the policy, in the near future, in response to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, although a date had yet to be set for presentation of the Bill to Parliament.
Members sought clarity on the definition of minor variations to be dealt with by officers under delegated powers. Particular reference was made to paragraph 5.23.5 of the policy on changes in the times alcohol can be sold between 07h00 to 23h00. Members' concern was to be sure that applicants should not able to make significant changes, likely to be of concern to residents, without due consideration by a sub-committee.
Officers confirmed that only variations which did not impact adversely on the licensing objectives would be dealt with under delegated powers. In order to make this clear and unambiguous, it was proposed that the word ‘minor' should be inserted in front of the word ‘variations' in the paragraph under discussion.
With the addition of this wording and a minor typographical change noted, the Committee gave its support to the revised policy as set out in the annex to the report.
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