| 13 | The Committee received a report on the review of the Licensing Policy and annexed to the report was a copy of the revised draft statement of licensing policy. The report set out relevant statutory powers, key issues and legal and financial implications and the Committee was requested to examine the revised draft statement of licensing policy before submitting its views to the Executive in November as part of the consultation process.
The Committee noted that the Licensing Act 2003 required a three-year review of the existing policy. Since the Policy had been formally adopted in December 2004, it had not been necessary to make any revisions to the Policy before this time.
The Committee also noted that a process of consultation had been agreed with the previous Portfolio Holder. This had included seeking the early views of the Licensing Committee in March 2007 and the responsible authorities, as detailed in Annex 4, appended to the Policy.
In consideration of the revised draft statement of licensing policy, the Committee commented that the proposed revisions were timely and sensible. Furthermore, the licensing policy enabled the Council to fulfil its crucial role in upholding the four Licensing Objectives, namely, the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of nuisance and protection of children from harm.
The Committee then went on to make the following specific comments:
(a) With reference to paragraph 5.7, additional examples highlighting safe and family friendly environments should be included in the revised policy.
(b) With reference to the Licensing Objectives relating to Public Safety (paragraph 7 refers), the definition of "safe capacity" as set out under paragraph 7.3 should be expanded to differentiate between venues. The Committee commented that guidance on this point would be useful to applicants and did not necessarily need to form part of the actual policy.
(c) With reference to Enforcement matters as set out in paragraph 12, the Committee indicated that the Council's firm approach to enforcement should be further emphasised. |