Agenda and draft minutes

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2025 were taken as read, approved, and signed by the Chair as correct.

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made by Members.

To receive a recommendation from the Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair advised the Committee that a recommendation had been made to them by the Customer Focus Scrutiny Committee. This recommendation was for the Licensing Committee to review the policies relating to the sale of alcohol and the hours within which this could take place. The recommendation came within the wider context of exploring ways to reduce anti-social behaviour in the City Centre.

The Principal Licensing Officer was unable to attend the meeting but a written response to the recommendation from the Principal Licensing Officer was ready out by the Chair to the Committee, making the following points:

·         hours for alcohol sales were not able to be set following the Licensing Act 2003;

·         this was to remove rigidity whilst maintaining sufficient safeguards;

·         blanked conditions on hours could not be imposed;

·         every application had to be heard on its own merits; and

·         the proper mechanism would be to review a premises when there was evidence of problems.

The Head of Service – Environment and Waste further clarified for the Committee that there was an opportunity to review a business’ licence when it was necessary and that representations could be made at the application stage.

The Head of Service – Environment and Waste responded to questions from Members, making the following points:

·         there was a Cumulative Impact Area (CIA) in some parts of the City Centre, which required licence applicants to prove they would not be creating issues as set out under the licensing objectives;

·         Devon and Cornwall Police were a statutory consultee for every application received;

·         the Council had no power to require consultees to raise an objection, but there were regular liaisons with the Police;

·         the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) did not apply to licenced premises; and

·         anyone could call for a review of licenced premises if it was related to the licensing objectives.

To consider the report of the Head of Service - Environmental & Waste.

The Head of Service – Environment and Waste presented the report, making the following points:

·         the Licensing Committee were responsible for setting a number of fees;

·         some fees were set by the government, or had a statutory range that could not be touched; and

·         the fees set had to reflect the cost of delivering the licensing regime.

The Head of Service – Environment and Waste made an amendment to the recommendation that the “Licensing Committee recommends for the Council to approve for the period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 that the fees shall be set as specified in Appendix B”.

The Head of Service – Environment and Waste responded to questions from Members making the following points:

·         there was a minimum and maximum limit for gambling fees, and Exeter was already at the maximum rate;

·         each fee had to be considered in isolation with the cost of delivery;

·         inflation was used as a guide, but other factors were also considered when setting fees such as software licences, printing costs, materials for taxi plates, badges and bus lane stickers, and vets fees;

·         for licences that were Part A and Part B, both parts had to be paid for the licence to be fully granted; and

·         Part A and Part B licences varied depending on the nature of the licence, for animal licencing it covered multiple years, but sex entertainment venues and street traders had to pay yearly.

RESOLVED unanimously that the Licensing Committee recommends the following:

That Council approves for the period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 that the fees shall be set as specified in Appendix B.

The Chair advised the Committee on three items of AOB:

·         a sex entertainment venue would be coming to Committee;

·         there was an upcoming training refresher session; and

·         he was seeking Members for working groups.