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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions

Contact: Mary Green  020 7527 3005

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Received from Councillor Michelline Safi-Ngongo.

2.

Declaration of substitute members

Minutes:

Councillor Hamitouche substituted for Councillor Ngongo.

3.

Declarations of interest

Minutes:

None.

4.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of meeting held on 5 February 2018 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

5.

Membership, terms of reference and dates of meetings of the Licensing Regulatory Committee in 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Minutes:

The Democratic Services Officer alerted members to the fact that an amendment was to be made to the Committee’s terms of reference at Council on the following evening to permit the Committee to determine the amount of fees and charges to be made for any approval, consent, licence, permit or registration within the terms of reference of the Committee.

 

Councillor Fletcher, seconded by Councillor Clarke-Perry, proposed Councillor Michelline Safi-Ngongo as Vice-Chair of the Committee.

 

RESOLVED:

(a) That the membership of the Committee, as appointed at the Annual council meeting on 24 May 2018, terms of reference and dates of meetings of the Licensing Regulatory Committee for the municipal year 2018/19, as detailed in Appendix A of the report of the Corporate Director of Resources, be approved.

(b) That Councillor Michelline Safi-Ngongo be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Committee for the municipal year 2018/19, or until a successor is appointed.

6.

London Local Authorities Act 1990: Section 28(1) - Breach of street trading conditions - Whitecross Street pdf icon PDF 205 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Street Trading Manager reported that Mr Borea had contacted her by email that day to confirm that he would not be attending the Committee. In his email, Mr Borea had requested that his licence be transferred to his assistant.   Copies of the email exchange of 13 June 2018 and 4 July 2018, between Mr Borea and the Street Trading Manager, were supplied to members of the Committee.

 

During a telephone conversation with Mr Borea, the Street Trading Manager had reiterated the purpose of today’s meeting and her recommendation to the Committee that his licence should be revoked on the grounds of his non-attendance on the stall and issues relating to the safety of the food items on his stall.

 

She informed the Committee that the Street Trading Team worked very closely with Environmental Health and wanted all street traders dealing with food items to achieve at least a Food Hygiene Rating of 3, denoting “Generally Satisfactory”. Where this was not achieved, the Street Trading Team and Environmental Health officers worked with the traders to help them to improve and hopefully achieve the required Food Hygiene Rating. However, the Council did not have the resources to provide continuing support on an ongoing basis of this nature to all its street traders.

 

She stated that there had been issues with Mr Borea and his stall since 2014, mainly because Mr Borea had not been present in person to trade.  His licence had been suspended twice in the past and he had not been charged any fees since March 2018. Mr Borea had displayed a history of non-compliance with the conditions of his licence. His licence had been suspended in March 2017 following an inspection of his stall, resulting in a score of 1, denoting “Major Improvement Necessary” and to the Service Manager’s concern that Mr Borea attended his stall only infrequently, a contributory factor to the poor hygiene standard rating she suggested.

 

In response to a question from a member of the Committee, the Street Trading Manager stated that a rating of 1 would be of great concern to the Council, meaning no hot water available and poor food handling.  It was noted that Mr Borea had been storing some of his food items in the basement of a local pub, at unsafe temperatures, since the air temperatures were too high.  This would constitute a risk to the public.

 

The Street Trading Manager reported that two unknown food handlers were found on Mr Borea’s stall on 17 March 2018. They said that they were there with the permission of the licensee. They were serving hot pasta, which they had cooked on camping stoves, which was another breach of street trading conditions since Mr Borea was not licensed to sell hot food. 

 

The Committee noted that, as at 10 April 2017, Mr Borea’s licence had been re-instated, following a period of suspension, as he had complied with requirements, including training for his assistants.  However, shortly afterwards, Mr Borea was not seen  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.