Agenda item

The members had before them a letter from Brenda Flaherty, Legal Manager, Licensing Team. In terms of section 12 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, where the Board decides not to follow advice or recommendations given to it by the Forum, it must give reasons for not doing so. The letter set out the Licensing Board response to the Forum’s submissions with regards the review of Statement of Licensing Policy.

Mr Anderson advised that the Forum had submitted a number of suggestions (as detailed in the letter) and the Board had responded to the Forum’s suggestions. He advised that, of the points not taken on board, some were already included, some, it was felt, required more discussion, and some were unable to be included due to the impending November deadline but may be looked at again at a later date. He advised that just because a suggestion/comment had not been taken on board did not mean that it had been without merit.

Councillor Boulton raised a point of concern regarding the adequacy of door supervision at licensed premises in the city, and the joint meeting had a lengthy discussion during which a number of contrasting views were expressed, including:-

• There may be a need to standardise door stewarding across the licensing area in the interests of public safety;
• Variations were agreed by the Board to reduce the number of door stewards on weekdays due to the lack of trade to justify them. Aberdeen City has a night-time economy which is struggling during the week and the Board should listen to license holders sympathetically.  On the other hand it was noted that certain nights during the week, for example Monday or Wednesday nights, could be just as busy as Friday or Saturday nights;
• The actions of some venues were leading to unsafe practices where, for example, untrained staff are being left without door stewards, and door stewards are being shared amongst up to four different venues at a time;
• Door stewarding is the first line of policing for licensed venues and, at present, it was being left to the will of the venue to organise;
• From a trade perspective, it is necessary to protect staff and venues could perform a self assessment based on average footfall that the Board/Police could then review.  A contrasting view was that self assessment would not work. For many venues, security is seen as a form of expense which may not always be prioritised.

It was felt that there needed to be further discussion between Board and Forum members to review the situation more fully. As such, it was agreed that a recommendation to form a working party, led by the Licensing Board and consisting of both Board and Forum members, would be put to the next meeting of the Licensing Board on 28 June 2011.

Councillor Jaffrey raised another issue contained within the response to the Licensing Forum regarding the staffing levels of License Standards Officers (LSO) within Aberdeen City. She advised that it was down to available financing that only one LSO was employed by Aberdeen City Council, and commended the efforts of that postholder.. Councillor Boulton advised that this issue had been raised at the end of last year with the Director of Housing and Environment during the budget process.

Sandy Kelman, Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drugs Partnership, raised a further issue regarding LSO’s. He advised that the Forum felt that the role of the LSO also covered guidance, mediation and compliance not just enforcement as set out in the Statement of Licensing Policy. He advised that the Forum had felt the Board’s letter of response had been generally quite dismissive in tone but accepted Mr Anderson’s explanation that time frames and the need for further dialogue on certain facets had led to this impression.