Agenda and minutes

The Clerk invited nominations for a Convener and Vice Convener as the terms of office of the previous Convenor and Vice Convenor had expired.

Nominations for the position of Convener were received as follows –

Garry Burnett             Nominated by Councillor Greig, seconded by Sandy Kelman

Allan McIntosh           Nominated by Ken Eddie, seconded by Shelly Nicols

On a show of hands, Garry Burnett was appointed as Convener and accordingly took the chair.

One nomination was received for the position of Vice Convener, Shelly Nicols, and this was unanimously agreed.

Garry Burnett then thanked the Forum for appointing him as Chair and made some opening remarks on his wish to strengthen the role of the Forum to ensure that it provides a good supporting platform to the Licensing Board, and continues to examine the 5 Licensing Objectives and provide recommendations to the Board in respect thereof.

The Forum had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 24 April, 2013 and the minute of the meeting of 13 February, 2013 which both required ratification of decisions taken due to the lack of a quorum at those meetings.

Garry Burnett stated that he was delighted to see increased attendance at the meeting today. It was also noted that (1) the Licensing Board would consider the Forum’s submission on the Statement of Licensing Policy at its meeting on 2 July (postponed from 25 June) and (2) that Allan McIntosh had been appointed to Aberdeen Civic Forum.

The Forum resolved:-

to approve both minutes.

The agenda for this meeting can be found at:

http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=151&MId=2737&Ver=4

The Forum had reference to the agenda and minute for the meeting of the Licensing Board of 30 April, 2013.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the Licensing Board agenda and minute.

The Forum had before it an updated workplan and the following was discussed.

Item 1 – Preventing Crime and Disorder - Public Health representatives were unable to make it to the meeting today to discuss the impact of alcohol misuse in students but were busy carrying out work in preparation for Fresher’s Week in 2013. An update would be circulated after the meeting and placed on the agenda for the Forum meeting in September. Councillor Martin Greig praised the work carried out by the Hub (Aberdeen University), the Purple Flag and the Weekend Partnership. Scottish Fire and Rescue were also holding fortnightly meetings with partners on weekend activities around alcohol misuse.

Item 2 – Securing Public Safety - it was agreed that the Doors Supervisor Working Group would be placed onto the agenda for the joint meeting of the Local Licensing Forum and the Licensing Board.           

Item 4 – Protecting and Improving Public Health – it was noted that Maria Rossi would attend the joint meeting of Forum and Board to give a presentation to all members.

Item 5 – Protecting Children From Harm – Dave Bliss advised that information from the Children and Young Person’s Audit Report and the pre-referral screening group was being worked on, and would be circulated by Kay Dunn in due course. Sandy Kelman referred to the current campaign across Grampian “Parenting and Alcohol Don’t Mix”. He suggested that Fraser Hoggan be invited to a future meeting to discuss this and other linked initiatives. Discussions were also on-going with Education colleagues on improving communication with parents, to reinforce the messages that children are hugely influenced by their parents’ behaviour around alcohol. Linda Smith reinforced the need to make more use of the Civic Forum and Community Councils to raise awareness and influence policy development. Ken Eddie agreed to take this item forward with the Civic Forum. In support of this approach, Sandy Kelman indicated that he would be happy to attend a Civic Forum meeting. It was also agreed to adjust the workplan in light of this discussion, and to receive a report to a future meeting.

The Forum resolved:-

to note and update the workplan based on the discussion above.

The Forum had before it a report by the Clerk to the Forum setting out the current issues relating to Forum membership and suggesting ways in which these could be addressed.

The report (a) set out the requirements of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 and the constitution as regards membership (between 5 and 21) and a quorum (half of actual members); (b) listed the current representatives against requirements; (c) summarised responses from Forum members based on a short questionnaire issued after the meeting in April; (d) noted that some members had missed three consecutive meetings and so decisions were required on whether they should continue as members of the Forum; and (e) asked the Forum to consider whether it wanted to reduce its membership and, if so, how to tackle this.

The Forum resolved:-

(i)            that the Forum consist of 12 core members and a number of additional co-optees who would not be counted in the total membership and not therefore included for the purposes of conducting a vote or calculating a quorum at meetings, and that the constitution of the Forum be amended accordingly and submitted for approval to the September meeting;

(ii)          that Forum meetings remain at 2.00pm; and

(iii)         to discuss the provision of further training for Forum members at a future meeting.

The Forum members suggested the following items for the agenda for the joint meeting with the Licensing Board, taking place on 27^th June.

(a)  Statement of Licensing Policy, including general discussion and a presentation by Dr. Maria Rossi, NHS Grampian;

(b)  Appeal Courts;

(c)  Licensing Act Evaluation Report;

(d)  Assessment of overprovision of outlets that supply alcohol in Aberdeen; and

(e)  Update on Door Supervisors Working Group.

The Forum resolved:-

to approve the inclusion of the above items on the agenda for the joint meeting with the Licensing Board.

The Forum had before it an invitation to attend a meeting of the Civic Forum on Monday 2 September at 7 pm to provide information on the remit of the Forum, membership, current topics under consideration, its powers and how it was set up.

The Forum resolved:-

that there would be an attendance at the meeting from the Forum, consisting of one or all of the following:- Garry Burnett (Convener), Shelly Nicols (Vice Convener), Linda Smith, and Sandy Kelman.

Sandy Kelman ran through the executive summary of the report by NHS Scotland “An evaluation of the implementation of, and compliance with, the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 – Final Report” and particularly drew the Forum’s attention to the issues around local licensing forums nationally, as well as the recommendations which covered many of the actions already being taken by this Forum.  Discussion identified a number of actions to be taken by the Forum to increase involvement and participation, these being:-

·        Receiving occasional presentations from members

·        Producing a leaflet on the work of the Forum

·        Placing the agendas on display outside the Town House

·        Keeping the website updated and including more information there

.

The Forum resolved:-

that the actions outlined above be taken forward.

Sergeant Barry Skinner advised the Forum that he was expected at another meeting, but would be send a statistical update via the clerk by e-mail.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the information.

Diane Sande, Licensing Standards Officer, advised the Forum that there had been two complaints recently. One complaint was still in progress and the other had been concluded. She stated that there would be further refresher training for  managers of licensed premises scheduled shortly. She also indicated that an additional post of Licensing Standards Officer was to be in place from September.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the update.

Shelly Nicols advised the Forum that Unight’s Annual General Meeting would be held over the coming weeks and further updates would be available after that. She also informed the Forum that there were currently 23 Unight members and that a new chair is due to be elected.

She advised that there had been an increase in the number of under 18s trying to get into Unight venues with fake ID. Sandy Kelman advised that, on this theme, there was a leaflet and a DVD out entitled “Is It Worth It” and that the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership had just paid for another 100 copies of the DVD to be issued to schools.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the update.

The update to the Forum was delivered by Sandy Kelman and Linda Smith. They advised that they were putting together more information for the joint meeting of the Licensing Forum and Board. From April 2012 to March 2013 665 people had been admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (place of safety) due to alcohol misuse. This equated to 2.5 people a day. 525 were male and 140 were female. Sandy advised the Forum that of late there had been 320 referrals to the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership for treatment in 2012/13. 98.5% were seen within 3 weeks  against a target of 90%. Sandy also provided an update on third sector services commissioned by Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drugs Partnership.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the update.    

The Forum  received an update from Dave Bliss, that 168 out of 1417 referrals to social work in 2012/13 had been alcohol related cases although it was not certain in these cases whether alcohol problems occurred because of the behaviour of the young people themselves or because of their parents.  Sandy Kelman commended on the need to improve linkages between Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drugs Partnership and Aberdeen City Children’s Services, although the two bodies were starting to align themselves more closely. The role of the Aberdeen Child Protection Committee was a vital one, as was the part to be played by collating and correlating the relevant data.

The Forum resolved:-

to note the update.

The Chairperson declared the meeting open for any other competent business, whereupon the following items were raised, and it was agreed:-

·        that the Clerk would e-mail a list of agenda items for the meeting with the Board;

·        that the issue of Adult Entertainment would be discussed at the next meeting;

·        there would be an Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drugs Partnership and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service seminar held on 30^th of October. This is to celebrate the 2^nd year of the alcohol and drugs strategy. Attendance from the Forum would be discussed at the next meeting.

- GARRY BURNETT, Convener.