Agenda and minutes

Due to the absence of the Forum Convener and Vice Convener, it was decided to defer this item to the next meeting. For this meeting only, Sandy Kelman took the Chair.

The Forum resolved:-

to defer this item to the next meeting and invite Sandy Kelman to take the Chair for this meeting only.

The Forum had before it the minute of the meeting held on 8 June 2011.

The Forum resolved:-

to approve the minute.

The Forum had before it the minute of the joint meeting between the Licensing Board and Local Licensing Forum held on 23 June 2011. Sandy Kelman informed the Forum that he felt the turnout for this meeting was much better than for the previous meeting.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the minute.

With reference to Article 4 of the minute of the meeting of 11 November 2010, the Forum had before it a copy of the minute of the meeting of the Licensing Board of 3 May 2011.

The Forum discussed that they found it difficult to comment on the minutes of the Licensing Board because it wasn’t clear from the minute text what was being approved or otherwise. The clerk advised that, due to the size of the agenda, it was difficult to share both papers with the Forum. However, it would be possible to include an electronic link to the agenda and minutes of the Licensing Board in the future.

The Forum discussed the possibility of inviting a member of the Licensing Board to attend Forum meetings as a Liaison Officer so that any issues raised by the Licensing Board minutes can be discussed.

The Forum resolved:-

(i)         to instruct the clerk to include an electronic link to the agenda of the  Licensing Board when issuing the Licensing Forum agenda;

(ii)        to invite a member of the Licensing Board to attend all future meetings of the Licensing Forum to talk to the Licensing Board agenda and minutes; and

(iii)       to otherwise note the update.

With reference to Article 6 of the minute of the meeting of 8 June 2011, the Forum were joined by Joe Mackie, Commercial Director for First Aberdeen.

The Forum discussed the recent changes to the late night bus schedules with Mr Mackie, and identified a number of issues which had arisen. Specifically, they raised issues with timetables being difficult to find online, bus scheduling, easily identifiable bus stops for late night services, and the level of communication between First Aberdeen, members of the late night economy and the public.

With regards to timetables and scheduling, Mr Mackie advised the Forum that the timetables were available online under the specific route and hard copies were also available at both the First Bus Shop on Union Street and the First Offices on King Street. He advised that the scheduling for the late night buses, while being the remit of the schedulers and not something he was directly involved in, was set out to provide a staggered dispersal from the city for late night patrons. However, he advised that he would take on board all their issues/suggestions and feed them back to the late night schedulers. In relation to an increase in ongoing communication, he advised the Forum that they were currently looking into utilising current technology such as text, Twitter etc, to further promote the service on an ongoing basis i.e. allowing late night patrons access to the most up to date information regarding the service. He advised the Forum that they are currently looking at situating bus stops for the late night service near to the late night taxi ranks in operation on Union Street.

Mr Mackie advised the Forum that he would be feeding back all their comments to First Aberdeen. Sandy Kelman thanked him for attending the Forum and extended an invite for him to return at a later date to further update the Forum.

The Forum resolved:-

(i)         to thank Joe Mackie for attending;

(ii)        to extend an invite for Mr Mackie, or another representative of First Aberdeen, to return and update the Forum at a later date; and

(iii)       to note the update.

The Forum had before it the workplan of the Local Licensing Forum. The Chair went through each issue on the workplan and updates were noted.

With regards to item 1 (Find out from communities what are their areas of concern), the Forum decided a number of actions. They decided to invite the Community Councils to submit agenda items and attend future Forum meetings. They decided to invite a representative from City Voice to the next meeting, with a view to investigating the possibility of submitting questions to be used in City Voice. They also decided to invite a representative of Street Pastors to attend future meetings, and also to invite representatives of the 5 Licensing objectives to attend the next meeting to discuss utilising City Voice.

With regards to item 2 (Improve intelligence in relation to statutory bodies), the Forum decided to write to the head offices of the major supermarket groups to invite a nominated representative to attend future meetings. They also decided to contact a representative from the Scottish Government & Alcohol Industry Partnership.

With regards to item 3 (To receive reports from the Licensing Board containing relevant statistical information), the Forum decided to ask the clerk to rewrite the update as to avoid any further confusion regarding this item.

With regards to item 4 (To request an outline from the Licensing Board on measures it will employ to ensure compliance with the five licensing objectives), the Forum decided to invite a representative from the Licensing Board to speak to this item.

With regards to item 5 (Late Night Bus Services), the Forum had heard from Joe Mackie, Commercial Director with First Aberdeen and decided to invite a representative from First back to further update the Forum on this item.

With regards to item 6 (Staffing Levels), the Forum decided to request further statistical information relating to the work of the Licensing Standards Officer in Aberdeen in relation to other major cities to be brought back to the next meeting.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the updates given and to task the relevant officers with the actions identified.

The Chairperson asked if the representatives present had any statistical information they wished to share with the Forum.

Gillian Esson (Grampian Police) informed the Forum that, in relation to recent exclusion orders, from 1 September 2009 to September 2010 there had been 76 exclusion orders requested with one granted. From September 2010 to August 2011, there had been 146 exclusion orders requested with 4 granted. In May 2011, UNIGHT were brought on board so that an exclusion order could now be granted to include the premises where the offence was committed and all UNIGHT premises. Since May 2011, 86 exclusion orders had been requested and 2 had been granted so far, with some requests still ongoing. In relation to bail conditions, 40 instances had been granted with 18 of those instances covering all UNIGHT premises and 22 being specific to certain premises.

The Forum discussed this information and asked questions relating to the level of orders granted and promoting the potential consequences of poor behaviour within premises.

Linda Smith (Aberdeen City Community Health Partnership, NHS Grampian) advised the Forum that they are currently trying to gather data for the Health Service, including hospital admissions and emergency admissions relating to alcohol. She advised the Forum that it was proving difficult to gather the data considering that it required establishing a wider scope to ascertain what is and what isn’t an ‘alcohol related’ admission. She advised that it was also important to avoid identifying individuals while gathering data.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the updates given.

The Forum received an oral update from Diane Sande, Licensing Standards Officer. She advised the Forum that they had recently moved offices to Marischal College but there were no changes to their contact details. She advised the Forum that the implementation date for the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Act 2010 was 1 October 2011. Sections 2 to 13 will amend the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, however there will be a briefing scheduled for the Licensing Standards Officers by the Depute Clerk of the Licensing Board in order to go through the changes in more detail.

An important change is that all premises will have to operate a Challenge 25 (or older) policy. The Social Responsibility Levy has to go through the consultation process also and the Licensing Board should be contacting all consultees and those effected shortly. She advised the Forum that the Health Board will also be a consultee with regards to new premises licence application and variation applications.

She advised the Forum that, after the summer period, the Licensing Standards Officers and the Police will be resuming their monthly meetings. Future joint operations have been discussed and they will also continue to liaise with the Noise Pollution Officers.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the update given.

The Forum had before it information relating to an upcoming National Licensing Conference in Glasgow. The clerk advised the Forum that the conference was one week away and that the Forum had scope to send one representative to the conference. He asked for nominations from the members. Upon discussion, it was agreed that the clerk would email all members of the Licensing Forum regarding the conference to see if there were any members willing and able to attend. Ken Eddie advised that if there were no other volunteers, he would be willing to attend.

The Forum resolved:-

(i)         to ask the clerk to seek a volunteer to attend the National Licensing Conference on Thursday 15 September 2011 in Glasgow; and

(ii)        if there were no volunteers, then Ken Eddie would attend on behalf of the Forum.

With reference to Article 4 of the minute of the joint meeting between the Licensing Board and the Licensing Forum held on 23 June 2011, the Forum had before it an email from Eric Anderson, Depute Clerk to Licensing Board, inviting them to nominate 4 members to attend a ‘short-life working group comprising members of the Licensing Board and Local Licensing Forum to consider the use of door supervisors in liquor licensed premises and to make recommendations if appropriate to the Licensing Board’.

The email detailed that the members of the Licensing Board who were nominated to this group were Councillors Jaffrey, Boulton, Donnelly and Hunter. The Forum decided to nominate Craig Adams, Inspector John Soutar, Michelle Wall and Bob Westland.

The Forum resolved:-

(i)         to advise the Depute Clerk of the Licensing Board of the four nominations from the Licensing Forum; and

(ii)        for the 4 nominees to update the Licensing Forum at a later date with regards to the working group.

With regards to Article 10 (A) of the minute of the meeting of 8 June 2011, the Forum had before it information on two applicants for the vacant spot on the Forum. Upon discussion of this item, the Forum decided to invite further applicants before deciding. They discussed inviting representatives from CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), Street Pastors, Offsales, Church Groups, the Samaritans, Cyrenians etc.  They also discussed the possibility of advertising the vacancy in the press. It was decided that this item would be deferred until the next meeting so that further work can be done towards finding a suitable candidate.

The Forum resolved:-

to defer the item until the next meeting of the Licensing Forum so that the clerk can undertake further work to find suitable candidates.

The Forum had before it draft information regarding an upcoming Alcohol Task Group Alcohol Stock-Take Event by Alcohol & Drugs Partnership, to be held on 27 October 2011 at the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre. The event will allow the Task Group to engage with partners and stakeholders to look at the progress made on the Alcohol Strategy action plan since the launch of the 10 year strategy in December 2009. This will allow the Task Group to look at refreshing the strategy and action plan, streamline the actions and ensure a clearer fit between inputs, outputs and outcomes.

Sandy Kelman advised the Forum that the event would be opened by Dr Lesley Wilkie, and lunch would be provided. He advised that he would email further information to the clerk for distribution among the Forum members.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the update given.