Agenda and minutes

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

None.

General procedure points and hearing procedure for the meeting.

The Chair outlined the procedure that would be followed.

To consider the exclusion of the press and public for the following items of business on the ground that the public interest in so doing outweighs the public interest in the hearing, or that part of the hearing, taking place in public. This is because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

By Virtue of Paragraph 1: Information relating to any individual.

Condition:

Information is exempt to the extent that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Information is not exempt if it relates to proposed development for which the local planning authority may grant itself planning permission pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Town & Country Planning General Regulations 1992(a).

ant to Regulation 3 of the Town & Country Planning General Regulations 1992.

Resolved:

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

Report of the Director of Planning and Development attached.

The Director of Planning and Development submitted a report for the Licensing Act 2003 Sub-Committee to inform members that the Personal Licence holder has been convicted of a relevant offence and to request that members decide whether to suspend or revoke the licence.

The Personal Licence Holder (PLH) was not present at the hearing.

The Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) asked members to consider if they would like to proceed with the hearing given that the PLH was not in attendance. The Enforcement Team Leader advised he had served the PLH with various notices and not received any response. Officers had attempted to contact the PLH on the day of the hearing via telephone and left a voicemail, this had not been responded too.

The Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) left the room whilst members discussed if they should continue.

It was resolved by members that the hearing would continue in the absence of the PLH.

The Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) explained the PLH was granted a Personal Licence on 15 March 2021 and was not currently the designated premises supervisor (DPS) of a Chorley licensed premises. It was unknown whether he was the DPS at a premise outside of the borough.

On 9 August 2022, the PLH was convicted of an offence of driving a motor vehicle with alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit, contrary to Section 5(1)(b) of the Road Traffic Act 1988. The court record indicated the PLH had between 90-119 micrograms of alcohol per 100 milliliters of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

The Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) explained that Section 128 of the Licensing Act 2003 requires a personal holder charged with a relevant offence to produce the licence to the Court. It appears, the licence holder failed to comply with this duty. Section 132 of the Act requires a PLH convicted of a relevant offence to give the Licensing Authority, as soon as reasonably practicable after the conviction, a notice containing the details of the nature and date of the conviction and an sentence imposed in respect of it. The licence holder also failed to comply with this duty.

On 31 August 2022 the PLH was given notice that the Licensing Authority was considering or revoking his Personal Licence and was invited to make representations regarding this within 28 days of receiving the notice. No representations were received from the licence holder.

Members noted the address contained on the court record differed from the address the local authority held on file and asked the Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) if the PLH had received the letters. In response, the Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) advised the Licensing Act 2003 has a requirement for PLH’s to notify the authority of a change of address, however he had not notified the authority of any change.

As all notices had been sent to the PLH via email, the Enforcement Team Leader (Licensing) advised he did not see any issues with the service of hearing notice.

Members asked why the reading  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.