Agenda and minutes

            The Minutes of the meeting held on 27^th November 2019 having been circulated were signed as a correct record.

            The Committee was advised that Licensing Authority had been informed earlier that day that the applicant and Cheshire Constabulary had reached agreement as to the conditions to be attached to the Operating Schedule which formed part of the application. The representations made by Cheshire Constabulary were withdrawn subject to the imposition of these conditions. The Council’s Environmental Section consequently withdrew its representations. The concerns of the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Authority and the Council’s Trading Standards had been resolved earlier and those representations were also withdrawn.

            The applicant and the statutory bodies had therefore requested not to attend the hearing and had been informed that there was no need for them to attend.

            However, since all representations had been withdrawn the Committee was asked to formally approve the application without evidence being called.

            It was also explained that proposed event would take place on Council land. Consequently, in addition to requiring a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003, the applicant would require a separate licence from the Council as landowner. That second licence would be more detailed and far ranging than a premises licence and would be subject to detailed negotiation and scrutiny before it was issued. This was outside of the scope of the powers of the Committee.

            RESOLVED: That the application be approved as amended.

PART II

In this case the Board has a discretion to exclude the press and public and, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, it is RECOMMENDED that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, having been satisfied that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

The Committee considered:

(1)  Whether Members of the press and public should be excluded from the meeting of the Board during consideration of the following item of business in accordance with Sub-Section 4 of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 because it was likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be considered, exempt information would be disclosed, being information defined in Section 100 (1) and paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972; and

(2)  Whether the disclosure of information was in the public interest, whether any relevant exemptions were applicable and whether, when applying the public interest test and exemptions, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed that in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED: That as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed that in disclosing the information, members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 because it was likely that, in view of the nature of the business, exempt information would be disclosed, being information defined in Section 100 (1) and paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

Case  No. 724

            RESOLVED: The Committee considered this matter to be extremely serious but in view of the matters disclosed at the meeting decided not to revoke the licence. The decision was that the licence be suspended for a period of one week.