Visitors and members of the public who are unfamiliar with the building and procedures are advised that:

(a)      The fire alarm is a continuous loud ringing. In the event that a fire drill is planned during the meeting, the Chair will advise of this.

(b)      Exit routes from the chamber are located on each side of the room, one directly to a fire escape, the other to the stairs opposite the lifts.

(c)      In the event of the alarm sounding, leave the building via the nearest safe exit and gather at the assembly point on the far side of the car park. Do not leave the assembly point or re-enter the building until advised to do so. Do not use the lifts.

(d)      Anyone unable to use the stairs should make themselves known during this agenda item.

The Chairman outlined the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their families or friends.

The Chair will ask Members if they have any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) or disclosable non-pecuniary interests (DNPIs) to declare in respect of items on the agenda. Members with a DPI in an item must leave the room for that item and may not participate in the debate or vote. 

Aside from disclosable interests, where a fair-minded and informed observer would think there was a real possibility that a Member might be biased or predetermined on an item, the Member should declare this and leave the room while that item is considered.

Members who are in any doubt about interests, bias or predetermination should contact the monitoring officer for advice prior to the meeting.

No interests were declared.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 4 October 2022 (Minute Nos. 353 – 358) as correct records and to accept the  Minutes of the sub-committee meetings held on Tuesday 1 November 2022 (Minute Nos. 405 - 407) and the Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 31 January 2023 (Minute Nos. 619 - 623).

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 4 October 2022 (Minute Nos. 353 – 358) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Licensing Sub-Committees held on 1 November 2022 (Minute Nos. 405 – 407) and on 31 January 2023 (Minute Nos. 619 – 623) were accepted by the Chair.

The Council operates a scheme of public speaking at meetings of the Licensing Committee. Requests to speak at the meeting must be registered by Democratic Services by noon on Tuesday 14 February 2023 and must be related to an item on the Agenda. Each speaker has a maximum of three minutes to speak.

No members of the public had registered to speak.

The Licensing Team Leader introduced the report and referred to the request by Members at the Licensing Committee in October 2022 for a Pavement Licence draft policy to be produced. She explained that the policy was straightforward and detailed the application process, including the factors taken into account when deciding the outcome of an application and what conditions would be imposed on a granted licence.  The Licensing Team Leader set out the process for adoption of the policy after a consultation had been carried out.

Referring to the limited enforcement powers,  the Licensing Team Leader explained that currently there was reliance on Kent County Council (KCC) officers to act on their behalf but in the future, under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which removed the function of tables and chairs licences from KCC to local authority responsibilities, there might be greater enforcement powers for Swale Borough Council (SBC).

Finally, the Licensing Team Leader said that any policy agreed would be subject to a review to include the new provisions when they became law.

In the debate that followed, Members raised points including:

·         Praised the comprehensive, easy-reading report;

·         suggested disability groups and the Police be included as consultees;

·         what provisions had been made in the budget for resource and expenses when enforcement powers were given to SBC?; and

·         were ‘A’ boards outside premises in the high street controllable?

In response, the Licensing Team Leader thanked the Member’s suggestion and welcomed the inclusion of disability groups to the consultation.  She explained that the only likely costs were moving furniture onto a low-loader and as part of the Levelling Up Bill, costs might be recharged.  Other administration work was part of officers’ every day role. The Lawyer (Contentious) added that the details of enforcement would not be known until the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill had received royal assent.  The Licensing Team Leader explained that ‘A’ boards in the High Street were under the jurisdiction of KCC.

Resolved:

(1)  That the draft Pavement Licence Policy as set out in the Agenda be agreed.

(2)  That the consultation process as outlined in the Agenda with the addition of disability groups  and the Police in the consultation be noted, and agreed for officers to proceed with the consultation.

The Licensing Team Leader introduced the report which asked Members to consider proposed amendments to the current Swale Street Trading Policy.  She advised that the current policy was adopted in March 2021 and explained that whilst the current provisions within the policy had worked well for those traders who had six-month or yearly consents, there had been issues with one-off consents which required a consultation period of eight weeks and for applicants to obtain a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.  The Licensing Team Leader gave an example of how the demands of the policy and length of consultation process had caused problems with event holders and drew attention to the summary of proposed changes at Appendix II on page 57 of the report which could overcome this.

The Licensing Team Leader said that all event organisers submitted an event management plan which involved the same agencies as those consulted for Street Trading Consent and it was therefore an unnecessary duplication.  She added that applications for one-off street trading consents were not required unless they were part of an event.

Referring to the requirement for a basic DBS check, the Licensing Team Leader said one-off traders did not pose the small safeguarding risk that those trading from the same location and holding a six monthly or yearly permission did. In addition, the current policy stated that DBS checks for one-off traders would be required ‘where necessary’ without specifying when this would be required, and so had been carried out for all applications creating unnecessary costs and paperwork.

The Licensing Team Leader said that, if approved, the draft policy would go out to an eight-week consultation which would include all previous holders of one-off consents, before coming back to the Licensing Committee with responses and final adoption.

In the debate that followed, Members made comments including:

·         Sought clarity on numbers in a ‘series of events’;

·         sought clarity on paragraph 3.4 of the policy;

·         suggested the Police and the Chair of the Safety Advisory Group be included as a consultee;

·         suggested ‘event organisers for regular annual events’ instead of naming specific events as at paragraph 5.2 on page 29 of the Agenda;

·         raised concern over the risk of malicious complaints if the nature of complaints was not specified as at 5.5.2 in the policy, on Appendix 4, and suggested adding ‘substantiated’ to complaint in order to deter malicious complaints; and

·         did the policy cover the Friday market traders?.

In response, the Licensing Team Leader explained that some exemptions were included in the Act.  She detailed how consultees were contacted as part of a wider group and said that most complaints came from the public and details of a complaint were always thoroughly considered. The Lawyer (Contentious) warned against being too specific about the nature of complaints, so as not to fetter their discretion. The Licensing Team Leader advised that the Friday market traders were mostly mobile traders and the policy did not cover this.

A Member raised concern that the Policy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 657.