Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Anwen Davies, Linda Ann Jones, Eryl Jones-Williams and Elfed Williams

To receive any declaration of personal interest.

No declarations of personal interest were received from any members present.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration.

None to note

The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this Committee, held 4th December 2023 be signed as a true record. 

The Chair signed the minutes of a meeting of this committee, that took place on 4 December 2023, as a true record.

To submit, for information, minutes of the Central Licensing Sub-committee meeting held on the following date –

a)    26 January 2024

Submitted and received, for information, the minutes of the General Licensing Sub-committees held on 26 January 2024 as true records.

Following statutory public consultation, the Licensing Committee is asked to approve the Statement of Licensing Policy to be referred to the Council to be adopted.

DECISION

·         To accept the report

·         To approve the Statement of Licensing Policy and refer to Full Council for adoption (May 2024)

Submitted - a report by the Licensing Manager highlighting the need for every Licensing Authority to publish a statement of the Licensing Policy every 5 years. It was explained that the current Statement of Policy was approved by the Full Council in December 2015 therefore the 5-year period had ended since 2021. Although the Committee had approved a draft version of the Statement of Licensing Policy for public consultation in June 2021, there had been a delay before moving forward with the revision because the Service prioritised the covid lockdown enforcement work.

It was noted that six North Wales counties had decided to establish a Task Group to collaborate to draw up a statement of Licensing Policy that reconciled general elements across the region. ⁠It was reiterated that the Task Group also had tried to collaborate on the consistency, structure and content of the statement, however, due to different economic and social factors, it was noted that each statement has been worded slightly different and continued to apply to its specific area.

Reference was made to minor changes to the policy such as reference to the Well-being of Future Generations (2015) Act, the role of Public Health Wales and the Health Board in the process of policy forming and responding to applications for a premises licence.  Despite these changes, it was reported that neither the spirit nor the vision of the policy had changed.

In the context of a formal consultation, a consultation was held over December 2023 and January 2024 with North Wales Police, North Wales Fire & Rescue Service, Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board, People/Bodies that represent the county's businesses and residents, People/Bodies that represent current licence/certificate holders as well as a copy of the document that was available for examination at Siop Gwynedd and online. It was reported that no response had been received, possibly attributable to the fact that the new draft policy did not include any contentious changes. It was highlighted that an Equality Impact Assessment was also completed on the current statement because changes had been made to the policy since 2015.

Thanks was given for the report.

It was proposed and seconded to approve the Policy.

RESOLVED:

·       To accept the report

·       To approve the Statement of Licensing Policy and to refer it for the Full Council to adopt it (May 2024).