Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes from the last meeting.

The minutes of the meetings held on 21 July 2020 were agreed.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor Allen.   

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

There was no public participation.

N March introduced the report to members. The Business and Planning Act 2020 has recently been brought in to help the economy following the previous lockdown. The changes are temporary, remaining in place until 30th September 2021

There are two significant changes brought in for businesses as a result:

• The change in approach to outdoor furniture provision for relevant businesses (as defined in the Act) to enable them to increase their trading space ‘pavement licences’.
• Relaxation of off sales of alcohol for licensed premises

Pavement licensing requirements

• ‘Pavement Licences’ are to be issued by District Councils
• Any business selling and/or serving food or drink may apply for a pavement licence to have tables and chairs and other street furniture such as patio heaters placed on the highway adjacent to their premises for the benefit of their customers – if the land is not a highway and is privately owned land
• Separate consent of the landowner is required.
• Licences will be considered granted unless the Council rejects them within a set statutory period.
• The Council has 14 days to determine an application, with half of that forming a public consultation, and the other half being the time permitted for the consultations received to be considered and a decision made.
• A maximum fee of £100 can be charged for applications.
• Licences can last for a maximum of the full period that the legislation will have effect i.e. 30th September 2021, with the shortest duration being no less than three months.
•  

Conditions can be attached (two must be attached), these are shown in appendix 1 (starting page 8 of report), we have used the HCC existing conditions, but reduced the level of insurance required from £10m to £5m as £10m was considered excessive by our legal team.

Licensing Act 2003 relaxation to off-sales of alcohol

This aspect of the report is for information only.

All premises with on-licences will automatically be permitted to sell alcohol to be taken away as if they have a licence permitting off-sales, and any restrictive conditions normally in place have ceased to have effect.

In simple terms, this means that any premises that is open for on sales is now able to sell alcohol to customers to take and consume where they wish, and the council has no power to prevent this in the first instance.

This can be changed by way of a special review and hearing, if problems arise.

Recommendations

1. Agree that fees will be set at the maximum permitted level of £100 in order to recover as much of the cost of issuing licences as possible.

2. Agree the attached conditions.

3. Agree that the duration of licences will be to 30th September 2021, unless revoked.

4. Delegate responsibility for granting, refusal and revocation of licences, including amending conditions, to the Assistant Director – Corporate and Contracted Services and the Group Manager, Legal and Corporate Services.

Councillor Rogers asked if the team had any idea how many premises might apply for this licence. He  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.