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. Members and Officers may seek advice upon any relevant interest from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no substitute members.

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 questions from members of the public.

In the opinion of the Proper Officer the press and public should be excluded from the meeting for consideration of the following item. Therefore the meeting is asked to consider passing the following resolution:

‘that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting from the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12 A to the Act indicated against the item.’

In accordance with advice from the Legal Department, as there was some exempt information within the application It was decided to move Item 4 (Exclusion of the press and public) to precede Item 3, to enable the committee to consider the application in private.

The Chair read out the Exclusion of the press and public procedure and made a proposal that this was agreed by the Committee. This was seconded and approved unanimously. The Digital Officer confirmed that the live streaming had ceased.

To consider a report by the Director for Communities, copy attached as item 3.

The applicant had failed to log on to the Zoom meeting so far but had specified in communications with the Licensing Officer that he did wish to attend. The Committee agreed that the Officer should try to contact the applicant at this point rather than continue in his absence.

A 5 minute adjournment ensued at 6:45 pm to allow this to happen, following which the applicant successfully joined the Zoom meeting.

Before the Sub-Committee was a report by the Director for Communities, which had been circulated to all Members. A copy is attached to the signed copy of these minutes as item 3.

Presenting Officer outlined the application

The Licensing Officer outlined the application before members advising that the application had been the subject of formal representation by three responsible authorities, Sussex Police, West Sussex Trading Standards and Worthing borough Council’s Environmental Protection Department. He also clarified that to his knowledge there had been no mediation between any of the responsible authorities and the applicant.

The Licensing Officer asked the applicant whether or not he had provided an accurate outline of the application.

At this point it became apparent that the applicants location and internet connection were not suitable for the meeting to continue on a remote basis.

After consultation with the Legal Officer the Chair proposed that the meeting be adjourned to be reconvened at an in person meeting to be held on the first available date.

Meeting adjourned at 7:15pm

Meeting reconvened on 9th November 2022 at 6:30 pm in the Gordon Room, Worthing Town Hall.

The Licensing Officer outlined the application once again and the applicant confirmed it had been an accurate account of his application.

The representative from Trading Standards then made their representation. 

The applicant's representative informed the committee that he had to leave the meeting due to other commitments and the applicant would also have to leave the meeting as he did not want to continue alone, stating that he did not understand English or the process.  They were advised that the meeting may continue in the applicant’s absence.  The applicant stated he wished to amend his application and change his DPS and therefore withdrew this application for a premise licence.