Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor J. Elledge.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

Councillor C. A. Hotham declared with regard to Agenda Item No. 10 – Appeal Update (Minute No. 22/23), in that he was a Member of the Licensing Sub-Committee for the premises review Hearing, and also in relation to the Appeal proceedings.

Councillor S. A. Robinson declared with regard to Agenda Item No. 10 – Appeal Update (Minute No. 22/23), in that she was the Reserve Member for the Licensing Sub-Committee and as such had received the Licensing Sub-Committee agenda and associated papers for the premises review Hearing.

The minutes of the Licensing Committee meeting held on 4^th September 2023 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Licensing Committee meeting held on 4^th September 2023, be approved as a correct record.

The Principal Officer (Licensing), Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS)

presented the report and in doing so stated, that as detailed in the report, 

Section 65 (1) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976

stated that a district council may fix the rates or fares within the district as well

for time as distance, and all other charges in connection with the hire of a

vehicle or with the arrangements for the hire of a vehicle, to be paid in respect

of the hire of hackney carriages by means of a table (hereafter in this section

referred to as a “table of fares”) made or varied in accordance with the

provisions of this section.

Members were reminded that having approval the revised table of fares at the

Licensing Committee meeting on 14^th March 2022, Members had expressed

the view that the table of fares should be regularly reviewed in order to avoid a

situation whereby a large increase was requested following several years

without a review having taken place.

The table of fares applied to hackney carriage vehicles only, private hire

operators were free to agree their hiring charges in advance with their

customers, normally at the time of booking the journey.

The current table of fares was included at Appendix 1 to the report. This table

of fares was approved by Licensing Committee Members during the meeting

held on 29^th September 2022 and had taken from 7^th November 2022.

It was now around a year since the current table of fares had taken effect

and officers had prepared a report in order for Members to have an opportunity

to review the table of fares, as requested by Licensing Committee Members.

The Chairman of Bromsgrove’s Taxi Association was approached by officers to

see if the members of that Association would like to request any amendments

to the current table of fares; and they had confirmed that members of the

Taxi Association do not wish to request any further increase in the table of fares

at the present time. They were concerned that a further increase would price

them out to customers and that they would then be more expensive then

private hire vehicles. Officers did reiterate that the table of fares was the

maximum charge and that hackney carriage drivers could charge less.

According to data from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, the

average price per litre of ultra-low sulphur petrol and ultra-low sulphur diesel in

the week when the existing table of fares took effect was: -

According to the same data, the average price per litre of ultra-low sulphur

petrol and ultra-low sulphur diesel at the time this report was prepared was: -

The Principal Officer (Licensing), WRS, responded to questions from Members

on the comparison / competitive fares charged by Uber drivers.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/23

Following on from the Licensing Committee meeting held on 7^th August 2023, whereby Members approved the draft revised Statement of Licensing Policy for the purpose of consultation.  Members were now being asked to consider the responses received to the consultation and the changes incorporated into the revised draft Statement of Licensing Policy as a result of the responses received.

It was noted that Bromsgrove District Council’s existing Statement of Licensing

Policy was published with effect from 1^st April 2019.

The Principal Officer (Licensing), WRS, presented the report and in doing so informed Members that the consultation exercise was carried out from 11^th August until 20^th October 2023.  It was noted that these dates had been omitted from paragraph 3.12, on page 17 of the main agenda report.

Two responses to the consultation survey were received one from a Parish

Councillor and a consultee responding on behalf of the Chief Officer of West

Mercia Police, as detailed at Appendix 2 to the report.

The consultee on behalf of the Chief Officer of Police was supportive of all of

the proposed amendments to the Statement of Policy document and did not

believe that any further revisions were required.

The Parish Councillor was also supportive of the proposed amendments to the

Statement of Policy document, but had made a number of comments including

a suggestion that the Council should make a further change to the document to

say that noise issues reported to local authorities should be followed up and

actioned where appropriate.

As detailed in the report, officers believed that the Statement of Licensing Policy

already addressed this issue in paragraphs 6.28 to 6.34 (Prevention of public

nuisance), paragraphs 11.1 to 11.14 (Reviews) and paragraphs 17.1 to 17.7

(Enforcement and complaints).  On that basis, officers were of the opinion that

the comments received from the Parish Councillor did not require any further

amendment to be made to the revised Statement of Licensing Policy document.

However, Members were asked to note that, during the consultation period,

officers noticed that a further minor change was required to the text of the draft

Statement of Licensing Policy at paragraph 6.37.  The change was necessary

in order to reflect the fact that the United Kingdom (UK) had left the European

Union (EU) and to make clear that photocard driving licences issued in both the

UK and EU were acceptable forms of proof of age.

The Principal Officer (Licensing), WRS, responded to questions from Members

with regards to:-

·                     sufficient members of staff in place that have undertaken first aid training.

·                     Terrorism (Protection of Premises Bill) / Martyn’s Law.

·                     Number of responses received to the Consultation.

·                     Licensing Conditions and Planning Conditions.

·                     Fire Safety.

·                     Representations made by the police, as referred to in paragraph 7.12.  

The Principal Officer (Licensing), WRS, further clarified that the Statement of Licensing Policy was usually reviewed every 5 years, but Members were not restricted to this timeline.  However, officers envisaged that further information and guidance would be issued on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/23

The Committee considered the Work Programme for 2023/2024. 

A brief discussion took place, whereby it was noted that Councillor S. Robinson had made a request to the Licensing Committee Chairman, that an item of business be considered by Licensing Committee Members; namely the Hackney Carriage Rank, Crown Close (Bromsgrove Bus Station).  

Following a brief explanation by Councillor S. Robinson on the issues raised at the Hackney Carriage Rank, Crown Close; Members were in agreement with Councillor S. Robinson that this item of business should be included on the Committee’s Work Programme and considered before the next meeting of the Committee on 25^th March 2023.

On being put to the vote, it was

RESOLVED that

a)    an additional meeting of the Licensing Committee be arranged; 

b)    officers be tasked to prepare a report on the Hackney Carriage Rank,  Crown Close, to be presented at the additional meeting; and

c)    the Licensing Committee Work Programme 2023/2024 be updated to reflect this.

"RESOLVED: that under Section 100 I of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, the public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act, as amended, the relevant paragraph of that part, in each case, being as set out below, and that it is in the public interest to do so:-

RESOLVED that under Section 100 I of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, the public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act, as amended, the relevant paragraph of that part, in each case, being as set out below, and that it is in the public interest to do so:-

Minute No.     Paragraph

21/23                  5

22/23                    5  

23/23                    5

The confidential minutes of the Licensing Committee meeting held on 4^th September 2023 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the confidential minutes of the Licensing Committee meeting held on 4^th September 2023, be approved as a correct record.

(During the consideration of the following item, Members discussed matters that necessitated the disclosure of exempt information. It was therefore agreed to move to exclude the press and public prior to any debate on the grounds that information would be revealed which related to; information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings).

There were no Enforcement / Appeals updates.