Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes from the last meeting.

There were no minutes to be agreed at this meeting.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillor Bowden, Johnson and Pringle.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

There was no public participation.

The Chairman asked the officers to introduce the report.

Sally Mcdonald, Lead Licensing Officer:

“The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities involving Animals) regulations have now been operating for nearly a year. There have been a relatively high number of applications up until now, and the applications and associated work and enquiries are coming in at a consistent rate.  The majority of licences that have been applied for are for dog boarding and dog day care in the home, but we have also received a reasonable number of applications for the other types of activities set out in the legislation.

Dacorum has pretty much led the field in developing systems and processes for Animal Activity licensing, this is evident as we have received a number of requests from other authorities for copies of our forms and templates, and use of the information on our website, and this is obviously something that we would like to continue.

Now we have processed a relatively large number of applications, inspected premises, and scored them in compliance with DEFRA’s requirements, we have used the knowledge we’ve gained over the last 11 months to develop a policy to guide prospective applicants through the process with clear and straightforward information and guidance, and setting out what we will require from applicants and licence holders, and what they can expect from us.

As Animal Activity Licensing is not the only area of animal licensing we regulate, we have incorporated into the policy both of the other types of animal licensing that we regulate, which are Dangerous Wild Animals Licensing and Zoo licensing.  We only deal with a very small number of both of these types, in fact no zoos have been, or are currently licensed by Dacorum.

We are now presenting the draft policy for your information and to give members an opportunity to comment if you wish, with the intention to put it out for consultation to the parties listed in paragraph 3.3 of the report by 13^th September 2019.”

The Chairman asked if the committee had any questions.

Councillor Bassadone asked how long the gestation period was for dogs. S Mcdonald said she understood it was approximately two months. 

There were no further questions.

The Chairman summarised that the consultation would begin on 13^th September until 25^th October 2019 and the results would be reported to the Licensing committee in November. The decision would then be made whether to adopt the policy or not.

Decision

The Licensing and Health and Safety Enforcement Committee noted the content of the draft Animal Licensing Policy. The committee instructed officers to commence public consultation on the draft policy, and to report the results back to the committee at its meeting on 12 November 2019.