Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any disclosable pecuniary interests in relation to

any business on the agenda. Declarations should also be made at any stage such

an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.

If in doubt contact the Legal or Democratic Services representative for this meeting.

Cllr Cochran declared that he was a member of UK Amateur Poker Players, a poker club.

There were no substitute members.

To approve the minutes of the Licensing and Control Committee A meeting of held

on the 14 February 2022, copies of which have been previously circulated.

Resolved: that the minutes of the Licensing and Control Committee A meeting held on the 14 February 2022 be approved as the correct record.

To receive any questions from Members of the public in accordance with Standing

Order 11.2

( Note: Public Question Time will operate for a maximum of 30 minutes.)

There were no public questions.

To consider a report by the Interim Director of Communities, a copy of which is attached as item 4

Before the committee was a report by the Interim Director of Communities. The Public Health and Regulations Manager delivered the report explaining the current committee and subcommittee member attendance arrangements. He advised the recommendation was to adopt an alternative arrangement consisting of a Licensing and Control Committee A (LCCA) and B (LCCB), both made up of 15 members that had the power to set up Sub-Committees of 3 Members of the main Committee for the purpose of hearing individual applications and reviews from gambling/premises and hackney carriage and private hire licence holders. LCCA dealt with Taxi regulation matters and all other non-2003/05 Act Licensing matters. LCCB dealt with all Licensing matters under 2003/2005 Acts.

The Officer also suggested that further streamlining could be achieved by having a single Licensing Committee that dealt with all Licensing matters and had the ability to appoint a sub-committee for all individual licensing matters.

The members posed questions to the officer regarding -

·         Executive members sitting on the licensing Committee but not as Chair or Vice Chair.

·         Substitutes available for committees.

·         The proposed size of the sub committees.

·         The possible arrangement of ‘standby’ Councillors for sub committees.

·         The possibility of having day time meetings on occasion.

A proposal was made to adopt the single committee system but with a subcommittee of 5 members invited but only 3 members sitting to avoid not being quorate.

This proposal was seconded, debated and voted on but was not carried.

A Proposal was made to adopt the recommendation at 3.5 in the report of a Single structure committee of 15 members and sub committees of 3 members.

This proposal was seconded, debated and voted on. The proposal was carried with a vote of 10 in favour, 1 against and 1 abstention.

A proposal was made to accept the recommendation in 3.12 of the report to have flexibility to hold meetings both during the day and evenings increasing the total available time and to reduce the impact of a large volume of meetings in the evenings.

This proposal was seconded, debated, voted on and carried with a vote of 9 in favour, 1 against and 1 abstention.

ACTION - it was suggested by members that Democratic Services were to collect a record of Councillors availability for meeting times.

A proposal was made to accept the remaining two recommendations of the Monitoring Officer being delegated to draft some revised Licensing Procedure Rules and that the quorum of Worthing Borough Council’s Licensing and Control Committees be set at 5 Members to reflect a third of the Committee membership rather than a quarter, to ensure fairness of process.

This proposal was seconded, debated and carried unanimously.