Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were intimated from Fred Bruce, Catherine Dobbie, Violet MacLean, Cath Cakebread, Steven Shaw and Raymond Park.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 28 August 2007 were submitted and approved. 

Prior to consideration of the draft policy statement, Susan Mair advised that she had had discussions with the Scottish Executive who have advised that they intend to distribute information packs on the new Act to all licensees at the beginning of December.  She also advised that they had indicated a willingness to participate in any training/information events which may be organised locally by the Licensing Board.  The members agreed that this would be of considerable assistance as many licensee are unaware of the full implications of the new Act.  Gordon Tran suggested that the minutes of the Local Licensing Forum go to the Licensing Board and a meeting be arranged with them in the new year.  Kenneth Harrison suggested that the members of the Local Licensing Forum be trained on the new Act before the licensees as it is their place to explain proposals to the licensees.  Susan Mair then explained that she hoped to get a series of training days organised early in the new year.  The purpose of those would be to inform licensees of the relevant provisions of the new Act and to provide guidance on the completion of applications and associated operating plans.

In connection with the constitution, Susan Mair apologised for the delay in this being issued but intended to have it available for the next meeting.

As the vacancy on the Local Licensing Forum has not yet been filled, Callum MacLachlainn felt that they require some sort of representation from younger people, i.e 18-25.  The members suggested several ways in which the post could be advertised.  Louise suggested posters at Argyll College, Callum though it would be good to get a 6^th year pupil in school who would be able to represent younger people’s views.  Kenneth then suggested that a committee be set up of several pupils from different schools throughout Argyll & Bute, who could attend the meetings.  Calum MacLachlainn then volunteered himself to visit all the secondary schools to encourage pupils to join.  Susan Mair confirmed that she would speak to Ronnie Gould, Head of Education on the matter.  Gordon asked all the members if they would be happy with this and Eric Box responded that he wouldn’t as he thought there was already a youth forum and explained that he still wasn’t sure why the forum wanted a younger person.  James Buchannan explained to him that young people are the future and therefore their views need to be heard.  The forum agreed to await for Susan Mair to report back.            

Susan Mair then left the meeting for the discussion of the draft policy statement.  The Chairman agreed to go through the policy statement first with the members of the forum to highlight the points which they wanted to discuss and draw to the attention of the Licensing Board. 

On page 4 of the policy statement Calum MacLachlainn asked for clarification of ‘public drunkenness’.  He explained that if a licensee refused to serve a customer, the customer would then go outside and the licensee wouldn’t be able to move them along the street, as it would need to be the police.  Inspector Boyter assured Calum MacLachlainn that Strathclyde Police were always watching out but if the customer had been causing a nuisance, the Licensee should contact Strathclyde Police.  Eric Box proposed that the point ‘public drunkenness’ be removed, James Buchanan agreed.  Inspector Boyter disagreed and felt that there should be something there about drunkenness as people are inclined to consume alcohol at their house prior to going to the pub and wouldn’t be fair on the licensee if they hadn’t served the alcohol.  He explained that the licensee’s should call Strathclyde Police no matter what the problem was. After much discussion between the members, Gordon Tran suggested that would be an area of discussion with the Licensing Board.  James Buchanan recommended that they propose to delete the point.  The forum agreed to discuss with the Board Members.

On page 5, the last paragraph, it was agreed that the statement was unclear.  After discussion, Gordon Tran proposed that it be deleted.  This was agreed by the forum.   

In 5.3(i), the fifth bullet point which states that the licensee could consider involvement in a local PubWatch or similar scheme to demonstrate their commitment to preventing crime and disorder on a wider community basis, Calum MacLachlainn felt that there should be something that brought all licensees and police to work closely together.  Inspector Boyter advised that Helensburgh have a very efficient scheme which creates a better working environment.  Gordon Tran suggested that the word ‘could’ be replaced by ‘should’ in the opening paragraph.  Members agreed to recommend to amend the 5^th bullet point to read ‘Every licensed venue to demonstrate their commitment to prevent crime and disorder on a wider community basis’.  The rationale for the amendment was that the term ‘Pub Watch’ was synonymous with pubs only. 

On page 9, the third bullet point states that there should, during all operating times, be at least one member of staff on duty who has been trained in first aid.  Gordon suggested that they get clarification if it is stated in the Act.  When Susan returned, she confirmed that these are just suggestions and the Board have no intention of making it mandatory.   It was accepted by the members. 

On page 9, in the seventh bullet point, Inspector Boyter was pleased that the Board support the use of CCTV but felt that point 7 was very discouraging for licensees.  The members agreed that CCTV should be encouraged but not a ‘must have’ as it is costly.                 

On page 9, second bullet point of (iii) concerned Callum MacLachlainn as he is a licensee and said that he would be concerned if he asked his staff to clean up rubbish which resulted in the occurrence of an accident for insurance purposes.  After discussion, it was agreed that the members would propose to put a full stop after environment and delete the rest of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

It was agreed that the next meeting of the Local Licensing Forum would be held on 5 February 2007 at 10.30am in the Council Chambers, Kilmory.