Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Roger Charsley, John Getgood and Charles Rideout.

Councillor Simon Fawthrop attended as Councillor Roger Charsley’s alternate.

There were no declarations of interest.

To hear questions received in writing by the Director of Legal, Democratic and Customer Services by 5pm on Wednesday 26^th January 2011 and to respond.

There were no questions from members of the public attending the meeting.

This item will be considered jointly with the Public Protection and Safety PDS Committee.

This part of the meeting was a joint meeting between the Public Protection and Safety PDS Committee and the General Purposes and Licensing Committee.

Members received a presentation relating to alcohol and community safety issues from the Head of Community Safety. In support of the presentation and to assist the discussion, the report contained a copy of the Alcohol Needs Assessment for the Borough and a document outlining details of alcohol related admission at Accident and Emergency Departments.

The Chairman welcomed all those giving presentations to the meeting.

Members received a PowerPoint presentation from the Head of Community Safety, the Head of Food, Safety, Occupational Safety and Licensing, Chief Inspector Malcolm Noone and Ms. Tracey Pidgeon from the London Ambulance Service. The PowerPoint presentations are attached to these minutes as an appendix.  Verbal presentations were received from Mr. Andy Bawn, Chairman of Pub Watch Bromley and Ms. Tracy Sickel, a representative from Street Pastors.

Mr. Andy Bawn addressed the meeting advising that he had been in the licensing trade for 25 years, 8 years in a Wetherspoons public house in Bromley Town Centre. He was also the Chairman of Pub Watch Bromley. The public house he took over had a bad reputation. There were two other large public houses in same part of the town centre at the time and there were many problems in the town. He had to work very hard to address the issues and now ran a very professional establishment He had worked with Pub Watch, the police and licensing officers. The regulation of door staff had helped a great deal. Previously there was not a massive emphasis of running premises properly but this has changed with the Challenge 21 scheme becoming the Challenge 25 scheme and the adoption of the Best Bar None national initiative. There was now good co-operation between all involved agencies with police and licensing officers attending all Pub Watch meetings. Mr. Bawn was also involved in Safer Neighbourhood meetings. The town centre was a much safer place than it had been 8 years ago. He reported that there had been no need to ban anyone from pubs in Bromley for the last 5 years. The most recent concerns that Mr Bawn had noticed were that people had started to come to pubs later in the evening. He assumed they had started drinking at home by buying cheap alcohol from supermarkets. This meant that when people arrived at pubs they got drunk more quickly. He had also noticed people drinking in minicabs and this caused littering and conflict when entry into venues was refused. In conclusion, Mr. Bawn suggested that the £500 fine for drinking in public places was reduced to £80 but with a tougher line on enforcement together with a ban on drinking in all types of public transport.

Ms. Tracy Sickel, a representative from Street Pastors, advised that the Pastors aimed to be in Bromley town centre every Friday night between 10pm and 2.30am and every  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.