Dundee Licensing Forum - 16/09/2009

At a MEETING of the DUNDEE LICENSING FORUM held at Dundee on 16th September, 2009.

Present:-

Dundee Licensing Forum

Also present:-

Bailie Rod WALLACE, Chairman, Dundee Licensing Board

Councillor Andy DAWSON, Dundee Licensing Board

Councillor Stewart HUNTER, Dundee Licensing Board

Maureen MORAN, Legal Department, Dundee City Council

Carole ROBERTSON, Corporate Planning Department, Dundee City Council

Anne SINGLETON, Secretary for the Licensing Forum

Bill BUTTERWORTH, Tayside Fire and Rescue

Ross HAGGERT, Tayside Fire and Rescue

Colin RATTRAY, Convener, in the Chair.

I APOLOGIES

Apologies were intimated from Ms Liz Kay, Ms Vered Hopkins (substituting for Steven Dalton), Messrs Jonathan Stewart, Graeme Petrie and Simon Goulding.

II MINUTE OF MEETING OF 24TH MARCH, 2009

The minute of the above meeting was submitted and approved.

III MATTERS ARISING

There were no matters ongoing that were not covered elsewhere on the agenda.

IV BEST BAR NONE SCHEME

Morag Douglas, Duncan Scheme Co-ordinator, gave an update on the present position. She advised that 27 applications had been received for 2009, and the Awards Ceremony, which would take place on 27th September, had been fully subscribed. She extended her thanks to the Licensed Trade for all their support.

Hamish Tait updated the Forum on the Safer Retailer Award Scotland which had been presented in draft form by the Business Crime Centre for comment by the training department of C J Lang & Son, who had provided the material for it. A major part of the document related to the sale of alcohol by retailers, their responsibilities and best practice.

He would provide this information for circulation to the Forum members.

There followed discussion of how to promote the scheme on a wider basis in future, possibly through the Licensing Board and the Press. It was noted that a letter sent out by the Chairman of the Licensing Board had been very effective, and this would be done in future years.

It was also noted that a number of trade members had found the advice and example of good practice offered through the BBN scheme helpful in complying with the new licensing legislation.

V LICENSING AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH INITIATIVE

Reference was made to the decision of the Forum to set up a Sub-Group to progress this matter. It was reported that this Group had now met and a report produced by the Group was submitted. This outlined the background to the requirement for Licensing Boards to consider the public health objective. It also outlined a number of ways in which the Forum could act to respond to this, particularly in making recommendations to the Licensing Board.

Particular reference was made to:-

- making recommendations regarding policy and best practice in respect of the Board's policy statement (which was due to expire in November, 2010);

- working on an ongoing basis with LSO's, the Police and the Board to promote compliance with current Licensing Laws;

- collection of data from police, health, local authorities, the community, and any other sources;

- involving the local community. Efforts to involve the local community had had a limited effect to date and it was proposed to try to engage the community through the Community Planning Partnership (K Licence, C Robertson to progress);

- promotion of Best Bar None Award. The Forum might want to consider sponsoring an award focussing on some aspect of social responsibility.

There had also been submitted a publication produced by Alcohol Focus Scotland entitled "Licensing for Public Health". Reference was made to the fact that the focus appeared to be on on-sales and had no mention of irresponsible promotions by off-sales, particularly supermarkets, which was felt to be a very significant problem. Whilst the Forum could influence matters locally, it was felt that a strong national strategy addressing maters such as minimum pricing, but also education, parental responsibility and advertising, was essential.

VI A O C B

(a) GAMBLING ACT 2005 - STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

There had been circulated to all members of the Forum a copy of the Licensing Board's draft revised statement in respect of the above.

The Forum concurred with the contents of the revised draft policy.

(b) LICENSING BOARD'S STATEMENT OF LICENSING POLICY

It was noted that this required to be revised by November, 2010 and the Forum should start to consider what recommendations it wished to put to the Board, with a view to submitting these by June 2010.

VII DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Tuesday, 1st December, 2009 at 2.00 pm, in the City Chambers (Joint Meeting with the Board).