Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Kevin Everett.

There were no declarations.

Report of the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection (copy attached).

A report of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection introducing the initial ideas for a Code of Practice for licenced premises as requested by Members was considered. The report explained that the Code was linked with the City Corporation’s Licensing Policy and also introduced a risk assessment scheme for enforcement purposes. The report sought to approve the draft version of the Code which would be sent to various stakeholders for consultation with a final draft being submitted to the grand Committee.

The Chairman explained that the Code of Practice gave licensed premises an idea of how the Authority wished licensed premises to promote best practice.

A discussion took place and it was noted that the Code set best practice across the board and suggested what was deemed appropriate to licensed premises. It was pointed out that a traffic light system would be developed in due course, and that the Code would be circulated for consultation in August/September 2012 with a full report being submitted to the grand Committee in October 2012.

The Licensing Manager explained that the point scoring system would work on the basis that where best practice was not being adopted the licensed premises would accrue points and potentially go to an ‘amber’ level at which point officers would work with the premises to improve best practice. If the licensed premises accrued further points and reached a ‘red’ level the premises would be open for a review.

A Member pointed out that a common sense approach needed to be adopted and that for example, a licensed premises like Hotel Chocolat may not need CCTV if it sold alcohol and champagne with a box of chocolates, as implied by the Code.

It was noted that a point scoring system would be developed which would be kept as simple

Licensing Application Notifications

It was noted that a website link to licensing applications would be included on the emails which were circulated to Members.

There were no urgent items.