Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Superintendent Raymond Park, Calum MacLachlainn, Fred Bruce, Iain McNaughton, Sheila Johnston, Catherine Dobbie, David Greenwell, Kenneth Harrison, Cath Cakebread and Peter Robertson.

Charles welcomed new members, Tim Saul, Raymond Boyle and Martin Donovan to their first meeting of the Forum and invited them to introduce themselves.  Charles advised that he had received apologies from new member Iain McNaughton.

As it was the first meeting of the year, the Forum were required to appoint a Chairperson.  J Russell Buchanan nominated Eric Box as Chair, Brian Kupris seconded this and accordingly Eric Box was appointed as Chair for the year 2011.

The minutes of the meeting held on 27 October 2010 were approved as a correct record.

Russell had attended the National Licensing Conference 2010 and was invited to provide feedback to the Forum.  He reported that one of the main discussion points of the conference had been minimum pricing and the Forum had a short discussion on this.

Roanna reported that the Youth Forum were currently looking into creating an educational DVD for their peers on the consumption of alcohol based around the theme “Don’t make the same mistakes we did” which would hopefully be completed by Summer 2011.  Eric expressed his interest in having this DVD shown to the Forum.  Charles told Roanna that if the Council could assist in the production of the DVD then to let him know.

Decision

The Forum noted Russell Buchanan’s feedback from the National Licensing Conference.

Charles advised that he had been in contact with Linda Bowie of Alcohol Focus Scotland as a result of the Forums concern over their remit and that AFS were not contributing as much as they had hoped.  Charles advised that Linda had sent him an email in response to the questions he had asked regarding the remit of AFS, their future plans for Forums, their views on Regional Forums and what the future would hold for Forums.  Charles advised that Linda had enclosed a training booklet and that this would be emailed to members of the Forum after the meeting.  He suggested that a training day be held alongside the next meeting.  The Forum had a discussion on the focus of the Forum for the coming year.

Decision

The Forum agreed that the focus for the coming year would be –

1. To hold Servewise Training alongside the meeting in April and that Sheila would be asked to assist in organising the training.

2. To engage more with other Forums and with AFS with a view to forming regional Forums.

3. To make representation to the new Government to set objectives for Forums.

Charles advised that Peter Robertson had been asked to provide an update on Overprovision but had been out of the office at Tribunals and had been unable to provide a report.  Charles advised that an email would be issued with an update and if any members had issues to notify him and it would be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

Inspector Davidson reported on the number of visits to licensed premises and the number of STORM incidents for the months October to December 2010.  He highlighted that the figures for October had been very high compared to previous years and that there was no obvious reason for the rise.

Eric noted that there were no STORM figures available for Helensburgh and that this had been an ongoing problem.  He advised that in the past Superintendent Park had made arrangements to obtain the figures but this had stopped some time ago.  Inspector Davidson informed him that they had problems obtaining the Helensburgh figures.  This was because they were collated with the figures for Dumbarton and Clydebank and to obtain them would involve manually sifting through reports which would be very time consuming.  Charles advised that he had emailed about obtaining the figures and was awaiting a response.

J Russell Buchanan asked Inspector Davidson if it would be possible to receive figures for domestic abuse cases that were purely related to alcohol.  Inspector Davidson advised that he would look into this.  Mr Buchanan stressed that it was important that this was not a time consuming exercise for the Police.

Decision

1. The Forum noted the police statistics.

2. It was agreed that Inspector Davidson would look into obtaining the STORM figures for Helensburgh and also figures for domestic abuse related to alcohol.

Eric Dearie spoke to his report on his activity between the months of October and January.  He highlighted the low level of licensing complaints in Argyll and Bute.  He reported that a premises in Helensburgh had been the subject of a licensing review and had subsequently had its hours cut which had resulted in a significant downturn.  Brian Kupris enquired as to what grounds a review is undertaken and Eric outlined the process.

The Forum had a discussion on 24 hour trade and the effect of curfews and reduced opening hours on businesses.  They discussed the change in the times that customers use licensed premises due to the smoking ban and the increase in the price of alcohol.

Charles advised that due to the budget cuts and service reviews that were taking place in the Council, he would not be filling the 2 LSO posts that he had provision for at present.  This was to allow for the Council’s redeployment programme which was part of the service review process.  He advised that, in the meantime, Alan Morrison had arranged for a contractor to assist Eric in visiting licensed premises.  Charles advised that he would report back on this at the next meeting.

Decision

1. The Forum noted the report by the LSO.

2. The Forum noted Charles’ update on the LSO posts and that a further report would be provided to the next meeting.

Charles took the Forum through the issue tracker and the following was noted –

1. That Servewise Training would be given at the next meeting of the Forum.

2. That an update on Overprovision would be emailed to the Forum.

Charles advised that attendance had been poor at previous meetings and that he had placed the item on the agenda to establish reasons from members for non attendance.

Decision

It was agreed that Charles would write to the members of the forum that were from public agencies to establish reasons for non attendance.

The meeting dates for 2011 were agreed as follows –

19 April 2011

19/20 July 2011

25/26 October 2011

Raymond thanked the Forum for welcoming him and added that he was not surprised at the low figures for Argyll and Bute that were contained in the Police Statistics.

Tim raised the increase in unlicensed restaurants inviting customers to “bring their own bottle” and expressed the opinion that it contributed to the risk of public disorder and encouraged the underage consumption of alcohol and asked if there were any control mechanisms in place.  He gave an example of some customers that had gone to an unlicensed restaurant with a number of bottles and who had sat in the restaurant all night but did not spend very much on their meal. Inspector Davidson advised that there were no laws to control the consumption of alcohol by under 18’s on unlicensed premises but that child protection legislation would play a part in controlling it.  Eric Dearie commented that a restaurant owner has the right to ask someone to leave their premises if they were behaving in such a way as he had earlier described.

Eric Box expressed concern at the low representation by health at the meetings and the lack of health issues on the agenda.  Charles advised that there would be little point in placing health issues on the agenda if there was no one at the meeting with a health background to talk on them.  He advised that he would include reference to this in his letter regarding attendance and would encourage representatives from health to put forward some agenda items.

Eric Box asked Roanna if she had encountered any problems with counterfeit Young Scot Cards.  Roanna replied that there had been a number of rumours circulating that counterfeit cards had been produced and used in Argyll and Bute but that she had worked closely with Strathclyde Police and Trading Standards and they had found no evidence of any counterfeit cards.