The Committee will appoint a Chair and Vice-Chair for this particular meeting.

The Committee agreed to appoint Councillor Rennie as Chair and Councillor Tippetts as Vice Chair for this meeting.

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) 1,2 & 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Committee agreed to pass a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and the public from the meeting for the following items of business, on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 1/2/3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Committee:

1. Considered the fact that the hearing involved the discussion around the applicant's criminal record which was sensitive data. As a result, the matter would be heard in private in accordance with regulation 14 of the Licensing Act 2003 (Hearing) Regulations 2005 as the public interest in hearing the matter in private outweighed the public interest in hearing the matter in public. The outcome could be reported without the identity of the applicant being known and this would satisfy the public interest in this case;

2.    Were not satisfied that to grant the application would undermine the Crime Prevention Licensing Objective for the reasons set out below and therefore agreed the application would be granted.

(Please note there is a confidential part to this minute)

(At the end of this item the Committee agreed to return to a Part I meeting)

The Committee having:

a)    Considered the report from the Director of Public Health, law, policy and guidance contained therein;

b)    Considered what was said by the applicant both verbally and in writing as follows:

              i.        The purpose of the event field at Central Park as outlined in the written response to the notice of hearing. A number of events that had taken place. The income from the events was used to fund the role of Community Hub Park Ranger;

             ii.        In particular, the Big Tribute Festival was outlined and the fact that 11 complaints of noise disturbance from amplified music were received. Noise levels had been set and out of 324 noise monitoring’s that were taken, 20 were found to be above the permitted levels by on average of 0.5dB. As a result of the lessons learned from this event, a number of new measures were agreed between Big Tribute Fest, the Events Team and Environmental Health. Those agreed measures were set out in the written response to the notice of hearing;

            iii.        One of the minimum measures in place in the standard terms and conditions was that noise levels should not exceed background noise levels by more than 15dB(A) over a 15 minute period at 1 metre from the façade of any noise sensitive premises;

            iv.        Conditions had been agreed with Police Licensing, which were additional conditions dedicated to the event space only and related to the door supervisor requirement. The applicant was happy with police conditions. The SIA requirement was actually more onerous that what was usually expected for standard events. The event also had to go to the Event Safety Group (multi agency meeting) and they asked which firms involved were going to be – if they weren’t happy with who was being used then they would not allow the event;

             v.        The variation application applies to New Years Eve (NYE) only and would permit sale of alcohol and regulated entertainment on NYE after 11pm. In the conditions that had been put forward in the response, to the notice of hearing (suggested conditions), it was suggested that alcohol sales ceased at 12.30 and entertainment ceased at midnight;

            vi.        The representation from Environmental Health centred around public nuisance because of noise disturbance. However, given that the variation applied to NYE only and there was likely to be noise from garden parties, firework and general merrymaking which often lasted into the early hours of New Year’s Day (NYD) (including a significant firework display planned by Plymouth Argyle) it was therefore highly unlikely that a safe and organised public event would cause a nuisance;

          vii.        In respect of allegations of non compliance with the licence on previous occasions, it was said that the Big Tribute Festival did not have a full understanding of the likely noise impact on residents however, the event had helped establish a more robust process of noise restrictions;

         viii.        The applicant was happy to work with other event organisers who had operated on the Event Space  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.