Agenda and minutes

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Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Windmill Street, Gravesend DA12 1AU. View directions

Contact: Committee Section 

Items
No. Item

56.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Jordan Meade and Sarah Kilkie – Assistant Director (Communities).

57.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 79 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2017 were signed by the Chair.

In relation to Minute 54 of the minutes, it was bought to the attention of the Licensing Manager that request had been made that, in future, when a licensing application was received by the Council all Councillors within the ward where the premises was located should be alerted to its receipt. The Licensing Manager apologised for overlooking this matter and undertook to ensure that it happened in future.

 

58.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

59.

To consider whether any items in Part A of the agenda should be considered in private or the items in Part B in public.

Minutes:

None.

60.

Police Licensing Update - Oral Update

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Police Constable Chris Hill from North Kent Police to the meeting.

The Committee received an oral update from PC Chris Hill who advised that the Police Licensing Team comprised 4 police officers (3 full time and 1 part time) and one civilian co-ordinator/administrator. The team was located in Medway and covered Medway, Swale, Dartford and Gravesham which comprised some 2,000 licensed premises and the team visited some of the more prominent premises on a weekly basis. The team had been recently restructured and there was no longer an allocated officer for each area. Instead, if enforcement action was required, a different officer to the usual would visit as it was difficult to build relationships with the premises if the same officer undertook the visits and the enforcement action. Members noted that the North Kent division was the only division that was structured in this way and PC Hill felt that it was working well within the limitations of the huge area the team had to cover and the corresponding lack of local knowledge.

Councillors were informed that every high risk premises had been informed of the contact details of the team and every call made to Council officers and the police and all visits made to the premises were recorded. A good relationship with high risk or prominent premises was paramount to enable the collection of intelligence to enable the police to deal with problems before they arose. Many premises sent a weekly email to the police team listing incidents, the number of customers, the number of customers ejected from the premises and the number of calls to the police and this information was recorded under the name of the premises. The team also checked 999 and 101 calls, custody suites and crime reports on a daily basis.

It was noted that drugs were a huge problem nationally and high risk venues were swabbed for the presence of illegal drugs on a regular basis and this information was passed to the licensee who was also given assistance and advice by the police on how to deal with the drug issue.  The advice might include the benefits of having slightly sloping shelves, boxed in toilet cisterns, no lids on toilet seats, shelving being covered by carpeting or a thin layer of Vaseline for example. If the drug traces found at a premises remained high after this advice had been given, the Borough Council Licensing Team was contacted by the police. Members’ attention was drawn to the use of locked drug boxes at high risk venues such as night clubs and large public houses. The boxes were usually situated near the access to the building and any drugs found by door supervisors or other members of staff after a body search were logged, placed into a completed evidence bag which was then sealed and put into the drug box. Only the police could access the box. It was noted that anyone refusing a body search would be refused entry  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.