Agenda and minutes

Councillor Angelo Weekes welcomed everyone to the meeting and officers and members introduced themselves.  The procedure for the conduct of the meeting was outlined.

There were no apologies for absence

None

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest

The order of business would be as the agenda

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 28 September 2022 and the minutes of the meeting held on 12 October 2022, both be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Licensing Officer reported that further to the publication the agenda and report pack, two additional submissions had been received; the first in the form of an email from the applicant’s legal representative on 27^th January 2023 containing 20 supporting documents; the second was received this afternoon (2^nd February 2023) in the form of an email from the applicant’s legal representative, responding to the model conditions. The Sub-Committee, the Licensing Officer, the Licensing Authority, the Legal officer, the applicant, and their legal representative were handed a copy of these additional submissions.

There had also been correspondence between the applicant and the licensing authority.

The Licensing Authority noted that the plan which was initially submitted with their application wasn’t adequate, and this was outlined to applicant. They had since sent an updated plan showing how machines could be observed by staff. The Licensing Authority confirmed they were now satisfied with the plans.

The Licensing Authority still had concerns regarding the proposed, daily lone working arrangements for the premises prior to 12PM, as said premises was located in an area known to suffer with a high level of crime and deprivation. The Licensing Authority was keen for the premises to retain a minimum of two floor staff on the floor at all times to adequately manage the premises. The Licensing Authority was open to potentially having an SIA-approved security guard on the floor to accompany the lone worker but would still strongly suggest a minimum of two members of staff on the floor at any time.

The Licensing Authority also noted their preference that staff training should be carried out bi-annually rather than annually, as from the detail seen in the documents submitted by the applicant’s Legal Representative, a lot would be required of the lone worker. The Licensing Authority noted that the other items were fine but would refer to their recommendation that there was a lack of detail submitted regarding staff training and frequency and that they would expect high standards of management and best practice. The Licensing Authority had corresponded with the applicant to ask if there was a record of customer behaviours or interventions, but those figures weren’t available at that time. The most recent procedure has only been there since November. The premises would be the first branch of Jennings Bet in the borough; previously there were two, but these have both closed. The Licensing Authority requested that the Sub-Committee ask about records from the shops on interventions, especially where there are lone workers, and distractions and how they could respond to customers who wish to self-exclude.

In response to questions from the Sub-Committee on whether the monitoring of outside of the premises would be something that they would want to see evidence of, the Licensing Authority confirmed that they would like to see commitment from the applicant towards being a good neighbour.

The Sub-Committee highlighted that Jennings Bet’s model was to have two members of staff on the floor from midday, yet the Council’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.