Issue - meetings

The Public Protection Manager to report.

The Public Protection manager gave the Committee a report on Licensing Consultees.

The Committee received the following information:

·         It had been raised at meetings previously and more recently via email re Parish Councils becoming a statutory consultee when dealing with Licensing applications.

·         Responsible Authorities included Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, North Devon Council Environmental Protection, North Devon Council Planning Authority, Devon County Council Business, Strategy and Support Services (Child protection), Devon County Council Trading Standards, Public Health Devon, Home office Immigration Enforcement, North Devon Council Health and Food Safety and North Devon Council Licensing.

·         Blue notices had to be displayed prominently at a premises where a licence was being applied for.

·         Adverts had to be placed in the local newspaper.

·         The North Devon Council website posted licence applications that were pending and this had a filter search function of choosing by Ward.

·         Extending the Responsible Authority status to a Parish or Town Council had not been done before at North Devon.  It was likely there were Local Authorities across Devon that did include, as a consultee, the Parish or Town Council.

·         There were reservations about staff capacity to add in a further consultee and resourcing and funding would need to be looked at.

·         It was felt that a Parish or Town Council could know about licence applications being made in their community.

In response to a question around the automation of notifying external parties, the Public Protection manager advised that the Council was looking to procure new software, which would have far more advanced features than the current version.  New software could have the ability to automate sending out notifications to interested parties, and this was something which would be explored on successful procurement.

RESOLVED that the position on Licensing Consultees be noted.

The Public Protection Manager to report.