Members of the Committee were asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non pecuniary interests in connection with any application on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

No such declarations were made.

To approve the accuracy of the minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2018.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2018 be approved.

The Director of Governance and Assurance reported that Standing Order 33(1) required that Committees should keep the need for panels under review and, in particular, the position must be reviewed at the first meeting of a Committee in each municipal year.

He set out the terms of reference of the Licensing Panel and indicated that if it was to be retained in 2018/19 with seven members, the allocation of those places would be 4 Labour, 2 Conservative and 1 Liberal Democrat.

He reported that only named deputies may attend panel meetings in place of a permanent member. Standing Order 25(6)(a) permits appointment of up to a maximum of eight deputies for each political group and deputies would normally be called to serve in the order in which they are nominated.

Unless appointed as full members, the Leaders and Deputy Leaders of the three largest political groups represented on the Council are entitled to attend  meetings of all Committees, Sub-Committees and Panels, with the right to speak at the Chair’s invitation, but not to vote (Standing Order 25(5) refers).

Resolved –

(1)  That the Licensing Panel be re-appointed for 2018/2019 with the  terms of reference identified until amended or otherwise changed by the  Committee and until such time as a new Panel is appointed.

(2)  That the following members be appointed to serve on the Licensing Panel in 2018/2019:-

Members   Deputies

4 Labour  Paul Stuart (Chair)   George Davies

Councillors  Ron Abbey (Vice-Chair)  Jean Stapleton

  Chris Meaden  Bill Davies

  Mike Sullivan  Anita Leech

  Christina Muspratt

  Christine Spriggs

  Adrian Jones

  Gill Wood

2 Conservative  Andrew Hodson (s)  Steve Williams

Councillors  David Burgess-Joyce  Les Rowlands

  David Elderton

  Paul Hayes

  Tom Anderson

  Cherry Povall

  Adam Sykes

  Gerry Ellis

1 Liberal Democrat  Dave Mitchell (s)  Allan Brame

Councillor  Phil Gilchrist

  Christopher Carubia

  Stuart Kelly

The Assistant Chief Executive sought Members’ approval of the draft Sexual Entertainment Venue Policy and a set of draft Standard Conditions for Sexual Entertainment Venue Licences in order that they may be circulated for consultation.  Members were also requested to consider delegating the consideration of applications for Sexual Entertainment Venue Licences to the Licensing Panel.

The Licensing Manager reported that Section 27 of the Policing Crime Act 2009 defined a new category of sex establishment namely ‘sexual entertainment venue’ which provided the means for local authorities to regulate lap dancing clubs and similar venues under Schedule 3 of The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 and gave local authorities more powers to control the number and location of these type of premises.  The adoption of the amendments to Schedule 3 came into force on 1 April 2011 and since the adoption of the amendments, one application for a Sexual Entertainment Venue Licence had been received and approved by the Council.  During this process it had been identified that it would be appropriate to have a Sexual Entertainment Venue Licence Policy to deal with these applications.  A draft Policy was circulated to Members as Appendix 1 of the report.

The Licensing Manager also reported that it had been identified that it would be appropriate for all applications for Sexual Entertainment Venue Licences to be referred to the Licensing Panel.  A draft list of Standard Conditions had been circulated as Appendix 2 of the report and it was requested that should they be approved, every licence granted, renewed or transferred would be subject to these conditions.

Resolved –

(1)  That the draft Sexual Entertainment Policy and set of draft Standard Conditions for Sexual Entertainment Venue Licences be approved for consultation.

(2)  That the consideration of all applications for Sexual Entertainment Venue Licences be delegated to the Licensing Panel.