Agenda item

Report of the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection.

N.B. This Item is to be read in conjunction with the appendix at Item No. 13.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection detailing the premises licences and variations to premises licences granted under the Licensing Act 2003 by the Licensing Service from 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2015.

The Licensing Manager was pleased to report that, for a second, consecutive period, no premises had reached ‘red’ status on the risk scheme.

Under Appendix 1 (New Licence Applications issued by way of Delegated Authority Jul-Sep 2015), the Licensing Manager highlighted that ‘Keevil & Keevil’ involved internet only sales.

Members were informed that there had also been two successful prosecutions in this period. One involved the DPS of Viet Café who had been fined £1,400 plus £2057 costs. The other involved a peanut seller who had received a £500 fine plus £290 costs. The City had also secured a destruction order on two of the sellers carts. The Licensing Manager went on to report that the same individual had been caught selling peanuts again only this week and would therefore face further prosecution.

A Member highlighted, under Appendix III, that Corney and Barrow was not in Langbourn Ward but was situated in Coleman Street. The Licensing Team undertook to update their database accordingly.

In response to a question, the Licensing Manager reported that the complaint regarding the Barbican Centre and Benedict Cumberbatch was being addressed by the Barbican Centre who had taken steps to ameliorate the situation which included limiting performance hours to 11.00pm.

In response to a further question as to why certain complaints were recorded with ‘no action possible’, the Licensing Manager clarified that this was often because the complainant wished to remain anonymous, was not prepared to grant access to Officers or no incident had been observed at the time of investigation. The Chairman reassured Members that, in these cases, premises were made aware of complaints and the matter was followed up with them.

The Chairman raised concerns around recent Raves that had been taking place in derelict buildings in the City. She questioned the Police policy on these. The City of London Police confirmed that the raves were taking place in commercial as opposed to residential properties and that these were not covered by existing legislation. He assured the Committee that there was ongoing intelligence taking place around these events in an attempt to stop these from taking place in the future.

RECEIVED.