Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes from the last meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19th January 2021 were agreed by the members present and will be signed by the Chairman at the next available opportunity

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Rosie Sutton

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

There was no public participation

NMarch introduced the report to members.

They key points were

Sometime last year they looked to help business they sped up pavement licences process, this usually would sit with Herts County Council however they have brought this over to the district and borough council, this was temporary legislation that would run up until September 2021, however with the restrictions running on longer they have indicated that they are looking to seek parliamentary approval to extend the process until 30th September 2022. Nothing else is changing. 

Previously when we discussed this we agreed we would charge £100 and that would run until the end of the legislation. What he asked is that we are still happy to do this and if they apply now this would be £100 up until September 2021 and then if they require a pavement licence next year they could apply and it will cost are further £100.

The other aspect is that pavement licences in the past had to have been agreed whereas the legislation at the moment, if they don’t do anything with it its considered as being agreed and issued anyway so there is a fast process in place, they currently have delegations to the assistant director and group manager for who have responsibility for licensing and were seeking for that to continue until the legislation conclude at the end of September 2022.

Currently it’s still seeking parliamentary approval but given the nature of what they’ve been looking at doing and the support for businesses he is confident that approval will be given so they need to make sure they have everything in place for when that happens.

NMarch asked the committee if they had any questions

Cllr Bassadone asked how many businesses do we have signed up at the moment, do you expect any more to apply.

NMarch said we only have 1 live licence however 2 further premises have enquired one of which has applied and due to go to consultation. He is expecting more will apply as they become more aware of the licence and were now only getting to the point where this will be valid, with lockdown and everything being closed also he said with the summer approaching more will be looking to apply. He said this will only to apply where the land in front is highway, he said that they did have one apply which was DBC land and this takes a different process.

Cllr Rogers asked Nathan if there were any plans to raise awareness with business as he feels this show that we are thinking of them and doing our best to help their businesses.

NMarch said there is nothing currently planned this is mainly due to resource however there is a lot of officer presence on the streets in terms of officer, for example Covid advisors, the licensing team’s enforcement officers looking at restrictions and they will be advising of options. He said that they don’t have a great way of getting out to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.