Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Martin Donovan (License Trade), Tim Saul (License Trade), Brian Kupris (Community Representative) and Fred Bruce (Community Representative).

There were no declarations of interest.

The Minutes of the Meeting of the Local Licensing Forum held on 17 May 2011 were approved as a correct record.

Iain McNaughton enquired if there was a Pubwatch Scheme in the Dunoon area.  Superintendent Park informed him that various attempts had been made to set up the Scheme in Dunoon but there had been some resistance.  He added that publicans had an informal agreement to contact one another should there be an issue.  Charles advised that the Licensing Board were to visit towns in Argyll and Bute and suggested that they could ask the publicans if there was an interest in the Scheme and if not, ask the reasons why not.  Superintendent Park added that he would ask Area Commanders to investigate the interest in the Scheme in other Towns.

Eric Box advised that this item was on the agenda for members of the Forum to raise any issues they had with regard to Alcohol Focus Scotland and asked if anyone had any issues to raise.  Charles Reppke advised that possibly feedback from the National Licensing Conference in September would raise some issues and prompt some debate.  He added that he hoped the Conference would reveal some direction from the new Government on new initiatives.

The Forum had a lengthy discussion on the drinking culture and attitude to drinking alcohol in Scotland.

Sheila Johnston raised the issue that the forum were still waiting on guidance from Alcohol Focus Scotland on the way forward for Forums, that Forums needed some kind of leadership and guidance and a clear ideas of what was expected from Forums.  Charles responded by telling Sheila that he had spoken to Linda Bowie regarding this and she had told him that the objectives for Forums were clearly stated.

Kenny Harrison asked what had happened to the central Local Licensing Forum that had been held in Edinburgh and if there were any plans to bring this back.  Charles advised that he had suggested this to AFS and they had offered the idea of regional Forums.  Eric Box advised that he was aware that LSOs had a central Forum and asked why this could not be the same for Forums.  Charles agreed to speak to Linda Bowie again regarding this.

Decision

The Forum –

1. Noted that feedback would be given from the National Licensing Conference at the next meeting.

2. Noted that Charles would be in contact with Linda Bowie and that he would raise the idea of a central Forum again.

Superintendent Park gave an overview of the Police Statistics for the months of April, May and June and advised that these figures were average for that time of year.  He confirmed with the Chair that the figures provided for the Helensburgh area were what was required and if the figures for domestic incidents were still useful.

A graphical analysis of the STORM figures over the past year had been provided to the Forum to show trends in figures.  Charles Reppke highlighted that it was interesting to see that the spikes appeared in every area at certain times of the year.  Superintendent Park gave his interpretation of the spikes in the graph and advised that these were seasonal trends.

Charles asked if many complaints of disruption within licensed premises had been received.  Eric Dearie advised that local residents are always quick to make complaints should there be a disruption but there had not been many.  Peter Robertson advised that out of all the Reviews of Licensed Premises that had been carried out by the Board none of those had been as a result of disruption within licensed premises.  The Forum had a discussion on whether this was due to the cheap prices of alcohol in supermarkets encouraging people to drink at home or whether it was due to the increased responsibility of licensees to control order within their premises.  The possibility of an increase in domestic incidents due to drinking in the home was also discussed.

Decision

The Forum noted the Police Statistics for the period April to June 2011.

Eric Dearie gave an overview of his update report.

Sheila enquired about the process for approving occasional licenses and whether these went to the Licensing Board or not.  Charles Reppke informed her of the administrative process for occasional licenses and confirmed that this was done by Licensing Staff in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the Licensing Board.  He advised that occasional licences would not be dealt with timeously by the Board.  Sheila then asked if any discretion would be given to an application for an occasional license for funerals as there was not generally enough time for an application to be processed under the normal 28 day period.  Charles confirmed that discretion would be made should there be a specific reason for this.

Decision

The Forum noted the update report by the LSO.

The issue tracker had been submitted to the Forum for consideration and the following points were noted –

• The training item could now be removed from the tracker.
• The outcome from the conference would hopefully provide some information with regard to the national outcomes for LLF.
• With regard to the promotion of the LLF it was noted that there may be a wish to promote the work of the LLF to the new Licensing Board in May.
• With regard to Alcohol Focus Scotland, Charles advised that he would be contacting Linda Bowie regarding her visit to the Forum which may not be the October meeting as Linda had given no firm commitment to this date.
• With regard to the Educational DVD Charles advised that he would contact Roanna Clark regarding the funding he’d promised to assist production of the DVD.
• The Police Statistics and the Evaluation of the Licensing Act items could now be removed from the tracker.

Iain MacNaughton enquired about the process for public consultation on license applications.  Charles advised him that Community Councils were encouraged to consult on applications, that applications are available online and that a public notice is displayed for the applicant therefore any member of the public can give their view if they wish to do so.  Eric Box asked about the possibility of licence applications being circulated on a monthly list similar to planning applications.  Charles told him that he would keep that idea in mind for the new Licensing Board but it would be unlikely due to administrative costs and reduction in his staffing.

Irene Miller, Focus Group Facilitator from the Scottish Centre for Social Research introduced herself to the Forum.  She advised that the Scottish Centre of Social Research had been commissioned to analyse the membership, roles and operations of Local Licensing Forums, their relationships with Licensing Boards and the impact of the Forums on the policies and actions of the Boards, identifying the factors that facilitate their role and those which act as barriers to their effectiveness.  Irene asked the permission of the Forum to record the discussion and assured them that the information they gave would be kept confidential.  Irene asked the Forum a number of questions to which they responded appropriately.  She thanked the Forum for the discussion.