Issue - meetings

Claire Perry, Licensing Partnership Manager, presented the annual report of the Licensing Partnership and an update on future projects.

During discussion it was noted that:

·  A Temporary Event Notice (TEN) was statutory and could not be amended by Local Authorities. These were notices that were countersigned by Licensing, rather than applications that could be granted or refused. The Police or Environmental Health could object to an event based on the licensing objectives if the event was found to breach the terms of the notice.

·  Events held in Maidstone’s parks are usually managed by outside organisations, and usually work within TENs and statutory rules. Licenced events in parks that do not sell alcohol usually are held under the authorisation of Premises Licenses rather than TENs. If statutory nuisance levels were breached then Environmental Health would serve notice.

·  The Deregulation Bill (which was at the report stage at the time of the meeting) proposed to amend the Licensing Act 2003 and introduce a new form of authorisation, the Part 5A notice, which would enable prescribed bodies (e.g. community organisations or small businesses which sold alcohol as an ancillary part of a wider service) to sell alcohol without having to use one of the existing forms of authorisation. It would also increase the maximum number of temporary events that may be given to the same premises in a year from 12 to 15. The matter of deregulation was stated as a concern for some Members, mindful of the effect this could have on rural areas in particular, as it was suggested that it required action after the event in response to complaints rather than preventing nuisance.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.