Agenda item

Report ES 20034

Mr Steve Phillips (Head of Health and Safety and Licensing) attended the meeting to update the Committee on the draft statement of licencing policy for 2021 to 2026.

Reference was made to page 267 of the agenda pack, and the paragraph which read as follows:

‘Large scale events are generally dealt with on time limited premises licences. They are not granted on an open-ended licence for repeated events year on year without recourse to a new application being made’.

It was agreed that this paragraph be amended to read as follows:

‘Large Scale Events are generally dealt with on time limited premises licences. They are not granted on an open-ended basis.’

A Member stated that he welcomed the amendment, expressing the view that now, large-scale events could be worded into longer contractual events. A Member said that she would have liked to have seen the sections and paragraphs in the draft policy document bookmarked and numbered, as it was difficult to comment on a document if one could not identify the relevant paragraph - this would be done.

The public consultation would run until the end of August. It was expected that the final draft document (post consultation) would be presented to the Committee at its next scheduled meeting on September 30^th.

The Chairman asked whether there was generally much public response to such consultations, and it was confirmed that generally there were few responses - the previous consultation had only received 6 responses.

A discussion took place concerning how much notice should be provided to the Council for Temporary Event Notices, and whether it should be 3 months or 6 months. It was agreed that the amount of notice required should be the same on the policy document and the Council website.

(At this point, Cllr Melanie Stevens declared an interest as she was planning to hold an event in Biggin Hill in November.)

Reference was made to the age verification policy and the reference to those who appeared to be under 18 being required to provide relevant proof of age. It was suggested that 18 should be changed to 25 so that this aligned with the Challenge 25 policy. It was explained that the reference to the age of 18 in the draft policy document was to comply with relevant statutory guidance which LBB could not change. It might be possible to add something to the document expressing the fact that the Council preferred a Challenge 25 policy to be in place. 

With respect to the licencing policy for garages, the question was raised as to whether or not the Council had a specific definition of the term ‘primary’ as it applied to the sale of alcohol at garages and was there any case law in this regard.  The term ‘primary’ would normally refer to over 50% of the business activity of the garage.

A Member commented that the information on the document relating to the Beckenham Purple Flag award was out of date and needed to be amended.

RESOLVED that:

1) The wording in the document relating to large scale events be amended as noted above.

2) The report be noted and the draft Statement of Licensing Policy be released for public consultation.

3) The results and comments received from the draft consultation be presented to the Committee at the next scheduled meeting on 30^th September 2020.