Committees
Minutes of Meeting of the Highland Licensing Board Local Licensing Forum held in Committee Room 5, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Tuesday 17 November 2009 at 2.30pm.
Present:
Forum Members:
Pat Hayden (Chair) (Resident Member)
Insp. Tom Ogilvie (Northern Constabulary)- Police Representative
Ian Mackenzie (IHLTA) –Trade Representative
Fiona Palin Director of Social Work HC- Social Work Representative
Janet Home –Resident Member
David MacPherson, Licensing Standards Officer RSL
In attendance:
Allan Kerr, Solicitor and Adviser to the Forum
Wendy Grosvenor, Licensing Assistant
Pat Hayden welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the difficulties she had faced in attempting to organise this second meeting of 2009.
1. Apologies
- Mags Duncan- Stirling (ECS) Education Representative
- Suzy Calder HDAAT- Health Representative
- Paul Cariss – Resident Member Youth Representative
2. Minutes of Meeting dated 4 March 2009
The Minutes of the Meeting dated 4 March 2009 were circulated as they had failed to be distributed in advance. Adoption proposed by Janet Home and seconded by Tom Ogilvie. The Forum ADOPTED the minute of meeting dated 4 March 2009.
Allan Kerr stated that as he has no input to Forum agendas he was surprised the agenda comes out in his name.
3. Matters arising:
Item 2 of Minute of Joint Meeting dated 27 Nov. 2008: Preference for 3 Forums. Pat Hayden noted the request for a report from the Clerk. David MacPherson referred her to Item 7.1 in Report INBS 64/09 at Item 4 of the Agenda for the meeting taking place.
Item 6: Feedback from Board- Pat Hayden stated that the Forum had received inadequate feedback from the Licensing Board. She received agendas from Wendy Grosvenor but no minutes. Wendy confirmed minutes are posted on Council website.
Pat expressed her concern that the Forum was not being allowed to run as it should- only meeting 2 times this year instead of 4.
It was the view of the Forum that the responsibility of the operation and administration of the Forum needed to be clarified. The Forum requested that their view be taken back to Highland Council, Head of Legal and Democratic Services by Allan Kerr, Legal Adviser to the Forum.
The Forum AGREED that Allan Kerr would refer the view of the Forum to the Highland Council’s Head of Legal and Democratic Services, in respect of future organisation and administration of the Licensing Forum. Allan stated that the Forum lacks a dedicated secretariat.
The Forum AGREED to consider Minute of Joint Meeting of the Licensing Board and Forum at the Joint Meeting on 15th December 2009
4. Transitional Arrangements and Identify Future Issues - Report INBS 64 by Clerk dated 5th November 2009.
Ian MacKenzie asked if licensing deadlines would be met by the Licensing Board in terms of Personal and Premises Licences.
David MacPherson provided statistical figures up to end of October 2009, noting that these were not the current figures.
It was noted that all Divisions of the Licensing Board had granted all premises licences and were working towards a deadline for issue of documents by December 2009.
Over 2,000 Personal Licences had now been issued.
Tom Ogilvie confirmed that the Police Service would be keeping a ‘watching brief’ over premises in terms of compliance with the New Licensing Act, noting that not all premises had been issued with the statutory compliance documents.
Tom Ogilvie requested a breakdown for on and off sales premises. David MacPherson agreed to provide these for all three Divisions.
The Forum noted the fee variations across Councils and the fee review to be undertaken in 2010.
Pat Hayden commented on the lack of uniformity across the Divisions of the Licensing Board in respect of policy.
Wendy Grosvenor agreed to forward details of anticipated Licensing Board Dates for all Divisions for 2010.
The Forum NOTED the report.
5. Membership of Forum – New Applications - Report INBS 66 by the Clerk dated 4 November 2009
Pat Hayden stated that, in her view, she felt it was unacceptable that the Clerk should administer membership. She noted that from the Minute of Meeting 22 April 2008 (Item 10), the Forum had agreed to adopt Ramsay McGhee as a further Trade Representative Member to the Forum. The Clerk had not accepted the Forum’s recommendation. She felt is wrong that the Clerk can sit as judge and jury regarding membership of the Forum.
For clarification on the role of the Clerk to the Forum, Allan Kerr circulated two documents to the Forum.
- Report dated 31 May 2007 by Depute Chief Executive of the Highland Council : To establish a Licensing Forum for the Highlands and to resolve how membership should be established.
- Extract from Highland Council Meeting dated 31 May 2007.
It was the view of the Forum that organisation of the Forum as prescribed in the report was failing and it was agreed that this view should be reported to the Highland Council with a request to review the administration and delegation of responsibility.
Janet Home suggested that a meeting might be useful, between Pat Hayden and the Head of Legal and Democratic Services. It was agreed that details for discussion at such a meeting would be prepared by Pat. Allan Kerr advised however that he bring these matters to the attention of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services first.
Details of a new member application from Sharon Williamson from the Ross Skye and Lochaber Region, as circulated, were considered by the Forum.
David MacPherson confirmed he did not know this person and no one else round the table knew of her. Pat Hayden confirmed that she would not support recommendation of the application, on the grounds that the applicant did not appear to be a representative of an organisation or network and accepting the application would take up a valuable and possibly limited, place on the Forum. Ian MacKenzie supported this view. Pat Hayden stated that she would seek to recommend, further, that Ramsay McGhee be accepted onto the Forum as he could represent the views of both on and off sales Highland-wide.
The Forum AGREED to request that Allan Kerr take its view on this item back to the Highland Council’s Head of Legal and Democratic Services and that the Draft Minute of its Meeting would form the basis of its representation to the Highland Council.
6. National Licensing Conference Aviemore, September 2009 - Report by Suzy Calder dated 9 November 2009
The Forum thanked Suzy for preparing the report and NOTED its contents.
7. Joint Meeting of the Licensing Forum and the Licensing Board
Date of Meeting: 15 December 2009 in the Highland Council Offices, Dingwall at 2pm.
The Forum NOTED the date and venue for the meeting.
David MacPHerson made a general presentation to the Forum on the business of the Highland Licensing Board.
He produced statistics for the Highland Licensing Board as of end of October 09.
He reported that at the end of transition 1029 applications out of 1514 Highland-wide had been under Grandfather Rights. Some reasons given for non –renewals were that many had only served alcohol with a meal and the service had not justified the cost of a new licence under the Act. A few licence holders had forgotten to apply etc. Some applications had been processed for Occasional Licences under ‘business continuity’ to take their new licence application up to the date at which it would be considered by the Board.
He briefly outlined:
- New changes in legislation that had affected the Licensing Board.
- New Board Sunday Policy (on and off sales)
- New NLDO at Alcohol Focus Scotland
- Terminal Hour policy (Across the 3 Divisional Boards – the Highland Licensing Board)
- Festive Extensions – differences across 3 Highland Divisions. Noting that if the date and terminus hour was stated in a premises licence operation plan, then there would not be a need for the licence holder to apply for extended hours as per the Government’s guidance booklet issued to Licensees.
- Review of Highland Board Policy Statement in 2010.
Ian MacKenzie stated he would advise his members to ask for fee back if seasonal variation is included in their operational plan.
Ian requested information from the Licensing Board in respect of late night opening premises operating curfews.
The Forum AGREED to request details from the Clerk of any premises within Inverness City Centre operating a curfew and whether this was a condition of their licence.
Date of Next Meeting: January 20th 2010 at 2.30pm in Police Headquarters, Old Perth Road, Inverness. (Tom Ogilvie offered to organise venue etc.)
The Meeting concluded at 16.50pm.
Please note – to allow time for the issues raised at this meeting to be resolved the next meeting of the Forum will take place in the afternoon of -
Monday 1 March 2010. Venue to be confirmed.