Agenda and draft minutes

The Sub-Committee will elect its Chairman for the meeting.

It was moved by Councillor J Henderson, seconded by Councillor Winfield and:-

RESOLVED – That Councillor V Guglielmi be elected Chairman for the meeting.

The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

There were no apologies for absence or substitutions.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 3 December 2020.

The minutes of the meeting of the Premises/Personal Licences Sub-Committee held on 3 December 2020 were approved as a correct record.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were none.

To pass the following resolution:-

“That under Schedule 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the items of business to be considered below on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act:

B.1 – Application for the Review of a Premises Licence.

The Council’s Senior Solicitor Linda Trembath read out a statement regarding the exclusion of press and public.

We are about to start the main business this meeting has been organised to consider.  As the agenda for the meeting correctly states, this is the consideration of an application for the review of a Premises Licence.  Before we do so, I want to make a few points for the public record.

Firstly, by way of background, a premises Licence is the principal way that activities regulated under the Licensing Act 2003 can be authorised, normally, on a continuing basis at a premises.   Those activities could be one or more of the following:

Regulated Entertainment – such as live and recorded music, performances of dance, films and plays,

Provision of late night refreshment – such as hot food and drink after 11pm

Supply of alcohol – to then be consumed on and off the premises.

The Licensing Authority for premises Licences in the District of Tendring is this Council.

A review of a premises licence is a formal process that can be triggered by a responsible authority such as the Police or by the public.  The outcome of a review could be one of the following, we:

Decide that no action is necessary to promote the licensing objectives

Modify or add conditions to the licence

Exclude a licensable activity from the licence

Remove the designated premises supervisor

Suspend the licence for a period (not exceeding three months)

Revoke the licence

There is then a right of appeal in respect of the decision we reach, and such appeal would be to the Magistrates’ Courts.

In the case of today’s hearing the Premises Licence concerned is:

The Sailor Boy Freehouse

Beach Road in St Osyth

An application for review of the Premises Licence was made on 23 November 2020.  The application was made by Essex Police on behalf of the Chief Constable.

As a consequence of the required notice for reviews, others were invited to make representations by 21 December 2020.  No representations were received from anyone else in that timeframe.  As such, the review is solely concerned with representations from Essex Police as set out in their review application.  This is the main business this meeting will go on to consider.

The Regulations that govern hearings such as this normally provide for them to be held in public.  However, we may exclude the public from all or part of a hearing where we consider that the public interest in so doing outweighs the public interest in the hearing, or that part of the hearing, taking place in public.

The Police have asked the Council to consider the review application with the public excluded.  On the basis of the Police submission, in this particular case, I do believe that the public interest in ensuring the proper functioning of the criminal justice system outweighs the public interest in holding this review in public.  As such, I will be asking the Sub-Committee to agree to exclude the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To consider an application for the review of a Premises Licence.

The Sub-Committee considered an application for the Review of the Premises Licence for The Sailor Boy Freehouse that had been submitted by Essex Police. This had been received by the Licensing Authority on 23 November 2020 on the grounds that the licensing objective in respect of the Prevention of Crime and Disorder had been breached.

At the end of the hearing the Chairman of the Sub-Committee informed all parties present that, due to the amount of evidence that they needed to consider and the various considerations that needed to be taken into account, the Sub-Committee needed time to reach a decision.

The Chairman stated that therefore the Sub-Committee would make its determination within the next five working days in accordance with Regulation 26(2) of The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005. All interested parties would then be informed of the decision in writing.