Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed all Members and Officers to the first meeting of the Licensing Committee to be held virtually. She acknowledged the meeting was being broadcast live and welcomed any members of the public who may have been watching.

Having welcomed all present, the Chairman expressed her sadness at the recent passing of Councillor Lewis Strange. After reading the following tribute to Councillor Strange, she requested for all to join in a minute of silence in his memory.

“Before I start this evening’s meeting, I would like you to join me in a minutes silence for Councillor Lewis Strange, who sadly passed away last week.

Lewis became a West Lindsey District Councillor in 1999 and served continually, being re-elected every four years, he also served as a Lincolnshire County Councillor.

Lewis was a committed servant to the people whom he represented, and worked tirelessly, not only for his ward but for all the residents of West Lindsey.

Lewis held many positions both on the Council and on outside bodies, especially The Lincolnshire Wolds committee, Lewis was very passionate about the Wolds.

Lewis will be greatly missed by all who knew and met him, he was as straight as a dye with a great wealth of knowledge and his dedication as a councillor was second to none.

Councillor Lewis Strange, A true gentleman.”

At the conclusion of the minute of silence, the Chairman thanked everyone and stated, on behalf of the Committee, that Councillor Strange would be greatly missed.

The Chairman undertook the register of attendance for Members and each Councillor confirmed their attendance individually.

The Democratic Services Officer completed the register of attendance for Officers and, as with Members, each Officer confirmed their attendance individually.

Up to 15 minutes are allowed for public participation.  Participants are restricted to 3 minutes each.

The Democratic and Civic Officer confirmed there was no public participation for the meeting.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the previous meeting, held on 10 December 2019.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on Thursday, 10 December 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record.

Members may make declarations of Interest at this point or may make them at any point in the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

The Housing and Environment Enforcement Manager introduced the report for consideration and explained that Section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003 required each Licensing Authority to prepare, consult on and determine a Statement of Licensing Policy. That policy must be kept under review on an ongoing basis and in any case every five years. He highlighted that the current policy was adopted by Council in November 2015. The legislation required that where revisions were made, the Licensing Authority must publish a statement of the revisions or the revised licensing statement. He concluded by stating that the revised policy must be in place by 7 January 2021 and at this stage, Members of the Committee were being requested to agree to the formal consultation period.

The Chairman thanked the Housing and Environment Enforcement Manager for his time and enquired of Members whether they wished to comment on the report. Giving due time for questions, the Chairman confirmed no one wished to speak and as such, the recommendations within the report were duly moved and seconded.

On asking Members to indicate their vote, it was unanimously

            RESOLVED that:

a)    the amended draft Licensing Policy be approved for consultation between the period of 6 June and 21 August 2020; and

b)    following the period of consultation, the Licensing Policy return to the Licensing Committee on 10 September 2020.