Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Tim Saul, J Russell Buchanan, Raymond Boyle, Sheila Johnston, David Greenwell and Kenneth Harrison.

Local Licensing Forum – 19 July 2011

The Minutes of the meeting of the Local Licensing Forum held on 19 July 2011 were approved as a correct record.

Due to a change in the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2010 there was is now a requirement for Forums to raise their membership from 20 Members to 21 Members to include a representative from Public Health the NHS.  Cath Cakebread had been in discussions with the Director of Public Health regarding this and Elaine Garmin, Public Health Specialist of NHS Highland had shown an interest in becoming a Forum Member.

Decision

It was noted that Elaine Garmin had been in contact with Charles Reppke and would be invited to attend Forum meetings as a representative of Public Health.

There were no issues raised under Alcohol Focus Scotland.

Links to Presentations from 2011 Conference –

Fiona Meyers - http://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/view/download/190-nlc-2011-fiona-myers

James Nicholls - http://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/view/download/191-nlc-2011-james-nicholls

Sir Crispin Agnew - http://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/view/download/192-nlc-2011-sir-crispin-agnew

Eric Box made reference to the links to the various documents that had been circulated with the agenda.  There were no issues raised with regard to the conference by Members of the Forum.

Alcohol Focus Scotland had circulated copies of the report “Re-thinking Alcohol Licensing” to all key stakeholders including Local Licensing Forums.  The document contained key recommendations for Licensing Boards, Licensing Forums and Local Authorities that related to the five licensing objectives contained within the Licensing Scotland Act.

The Forum had a lengthy discussion on whether it would be appropriate to draft a response to this document at this stage or to wait to see if any of the recommendations contained within the report would mean a change in licensing legislation further in the process.  The Forum discussed the culture of drinking in Scotland and whether the introduction of curfews and the staggering of venue closing times would be effective in reducing problems of crowds at closing times.  They also discussed initiatives such as serving soft drinks and coffee 1 hour before closing time.

Decision

It was agreed to continue this item to a future meeting for further discussion.

There were no issues raised regarding the joint meeting with the Board, however, it was noted that an amendment should be made to sentence two on page 5 of the Minutes to read “4 times a year” instead of “once a year”.

Inspector Alistair Davidson spoke to the Police Statistics for the period July to September 2011.  There were no issues highlighted other than that there were 3 licensed premises found selling alcohol outwith licensed hours in the 3 month period, which was particularly unusual.

Eric Dearie spoke to the LSO report for the period 1 July 2011 to 18 October 2011.  Eric advised that Raymond Park, who had been offered the post of LSO for the Helensburgh and Lomond; and Bute and Cowal Area, had started on 24 October 2011 and was based in Hill Street, Dunoon.  Callum asked Eric Dearie if all LSOs were ex Police to which he replied there were a high percentage of LSOs that were ex Police but there were others that who were not .and He added that there were 3 or 4 in the west area that were ex licensed trade.  Cath asked how much the 5 licensing objectives featured in the job of the LSO to which he replied that it they featured very much so as part of the Inspections Programme.

With regard to the National Outcomes for LLF; it was noted that Fiona Meyers was about one third of the way through the study.

With regard to the Promotion of LLF; there was no update.

With regard to Local Licensing Forum Conveners; it was noted that Eric Box would be attending a meeting with Linda Bowie and other Conveners on 2 December 2011.

With regard to Alcohol Focus Scotland; Linda Bowie had indicated that she intended to visit the April 2012 meeting of the Forum.

With regard to the Educational DVD; Roanna advised that £1000 funding had been received from Charles Reppke and £1000 funding had been received from the Substance Misuse Group in Oban and Lorn to assist with the production of the DVD.  Work had started on the DVD and interviews had taken place with Teen Aid and Strathclyde Police.  It was noted that the group were to feature on Oban FM also.

Arising from the Joint Meeting held on 28 September Peter advised that the item regarding the National Communities Project item had not been explained fully.  Peter advised that a local woman, Caroline Church, who has Ardrishaig family connections was interested in carrying out a project in the Lochgilphead area where she would speak to the Licensing Forum, Licensing Board and Community Safety Partnership to obtain their views on what particular issues affected the area, then speaking to the Community to obtain their views on what issues affected their area and compare both to see if both views matched.  The project had taken place in Blackburn and had been very successful.  Peter suggested that Caroline Church be asked to a future meeting to speak to the Forum about the project and to gauge their interest in participating.  This was agreed by the Forum.  Cath advised that the Chair of the Substance Misuse Forum had also been approached and was very interested in participating.

Roanna advised that Young Person Representative Laura Meek had now left the area and asked that she be authorised to nominate another person to sit on the Forum.  She suggested that a slightly older person be nominated than had sat on the Forum before.  This was agreed by the Forum.