Agenda and minutes

The Sub-Committee is required to elect its Chairman for this meeting.

It was moved, seconded and:

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

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

An apology for absence had been received from Councillor Davis.  Pursuant to the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 34.5, Councillor Casey had been appointed to take her place on the Sub-Committee.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the two meetings of the Sub-Committee, held on Friday 8 April 2022.

The minutes of the meeting of the Premises/Personal Licences Sub-Committee held on 8 April 2022 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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 determine a request for the licence holder to show to the public a number of short films that have not been classified by the British Board of Film Classification.

The request to show the short films has been made by Michael Offord of Electric Palace Harwich. The films would be shown at the Electric Palace Harwich towards the end of March 2023.

The Council’s Licensing Manager (Michael Cook) gave a verbal summary of the written report and advised that the Sub-Committee had before it, for its consideration, as set out in item A.1 of the Report of the Assistant Director (Governance and Legal), a request for the licence holder (Michael Offord of Electric Palace Harwich) to show to the public a number of short films that had not been classified by the British Board of Film Classification. Mr Cook also informed the Sub-Committee that the films were due to be shown at the Electric Palace Harwich at the end of March 2023.

The Licensing Manager further advised the Sub-Committee that the films submitted had been arranged by two separate organisations, namely Short Film Festival and the Essex Film Collective. They were also informed that Mr Offord had told the Licensing Office that some of the content in the films included ‘Strong Adult’ themes – for example nudity, swearing, self-harm, drug misuse and murder.

Michael Cook confirmed to the Sub-Committee that a Licensing Officer had viewed all of the films and had provided recommendations that were shown in Appendix C, to the aforementioned report.

Following Michael Cook’s introduction of the report the Sub-Committee moved on to questions for the licence holder (Mr Offord).

The Sub-Committee concurred that, after watching the films, it was felt that some of the films were powerful and needed to be shown. They also thanked Michael Offord for creating the film festival, submitting them and attending the meeting. 

The Chairman stated for the record that the Sub-Committee was requested, in accordance with the Council’s constitution, to recommend to the Assistant Director (Governance and Legal) the screening of an unclassified film subject to Council Officers viewing the film and imposing an appropriate age restriction if any, having regard to the British Board of Film Classification Guidelines.  The Chairman then advised that the Sub-Committee could either approve those recommendations or refuse permission to screen an unclassified film. The Chairman finally stated that, whilst there was a general provision for appeals in relation to the conditions placed on Cinema Licences, there was no right of appeal in respect of this decision.

The Chairman then asked the Head of Legal Services (Linda Trembath) if Michael Offord needed to leave the room  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.