Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Senior Technical Officer.

The report advised Section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003 requires a licensing authority to prepare and publish a statement of its licensing policy at least every five years. During the five-year period, the policy must be kept under review and the licensing authority may make any revisions to it as it considers appropriate. The existing Statement of Licensing Policy for Cambridge City Council became effective on 19th October 2017.

The Statement of Licensing Policy has been reviewed within the 5 year period as on 6th April 2018, The Policing and Crime Act 2017 amended the Licensing Act 2003 to place Cumulative Impact Assessments on a statutory footing.

The Statement of Licensing Policy contains a section on the cumulative impact of a concentration of licensed premises.

The proposed Statement of Licensing Policy has seen this section

amended and also produced as a stand-alone document, The Cumulative Impact Assessment.

The process to start the review of the Statement of Licensing Policy began in August 2020 and a twelve-week public consultation took place between 31 August 2020 and 22 November 2020.

The current Statement of Licensing Policy expires on 18 October 2022 and a new Statement of Licensing Policy must be in place by this date otherwise under the legislation, Cambridge City Council will not be able to process any applications covered by the Licensing Act 2003 until the policy is in place.

The section on Cumulative Impact had to be reviewed before April 2021 and this is why the Statement of Licensing Policy is being reviewed within the five year period.

The Committee:

Resolved (by 8 votes to 0) to:

      i.          Consider the results of the public consultation exercise as summarised in Appendix B of the Officer’s report.

     ii.          Approve the amended Statement of Licensing Policy attached to the Officer’s report as Appendix D. Appendix C included tracked changes showing the amendments that have been made.

Councillor Gehring did not take part in the discussion or decision making on this item.