The Director of Law, Governance, and Strategy has submitted a report to establish four General Purposes Licensing Sub-Committees for the 2026-27 Council Year to deal with the casework flowing from the Committee’s own responsibilities. 

Recommendation(s): 

That the General Purposes Licensing Committee resolves to:

1.    Agree to vote against the requirement for each of the General Purposes Licensing Casework Sub-Committees to follow the Council’s political proportionality. 

2.    Appoint as many General Purposes Licensing Casework sub-committees of three members as there are combinations of three members in the total number of members of the Committee,  

3.    Note the Sub-Committees’ powers and duties for hackney carriage, private hire or other driver or vehicle licences, street trading consents and sex establishment licences as set out in Appendix 1 to this report.

4.    Agree the dates on which the Sub-Committees will meet.   

The General Purposes Licensing Committee resolved to:

1.     Agree to vote against the requirement for each of the General Purposes Licensing Casework Sub-Committees to follow the Council’s political proportionality.

2.     Appoint as many General Purposes Licensing Casework sub-committees of three members as there are combinations of three members in the total number of members of the Committee,

3.     Note the Sub-Committees’ powers and duties for hackney carriage, private hire or other driver or vehicle licences, street trading consents and sex establishment licences as set out in Appendix 1 to this report.

4.     Agree the dates on which the Sub-Committees will meet.

The Committee and Member Services Manager introduced the report, focusing on recommendation 1 to abandon the requirement of the sub-committees following the Council’s political proportionality.  

The Vice-Chair invited questions in relation to recommendation 1; there were none.  

On being proposed by the Vice-Chair and seconded by Councillor Bala, recommendation 1 was put to a vote. The recommendation was unanimously agreed. 

The Committee and Member Services Manager then introduced the remainder of the report.  

The Vice-Chair referred to the previous arrangements in the last council year for allocating Members to Sub-Committees and explained that it did not work efficiently. The Committee was urged to proactively volunteer for sub-committees in order to ensure the schedule of meetings can go ahead as planned. 

Councillor Lygo noted that if attendance is not fulfilled on a consistent basis, then meetings will have to be cancelled, which is not preferable. Councillor Lygo also emphasised that the sub-committee workload cannot fall on only a few Members; it must be more evenly shared.  

Councillor Bala agreed and asked how the allocation to Sub-Committees is managed. The Committee and Member Services Manager explained that going forward, calling emails will be distributed to all Committee members via BCC to ensure officers can manage attendance and workload.  

Councillor Jupp asked whether the Sub-Committee dates for the coming year were already scheduled; The Committee and Member Services Manager confirmed this.  

Councillor Dhall asked how fair in advance calling emails are sent out for each sub-committee meeting. The Committee and Member Services Officer explained that calling emails are usually sent out 4-6 weeks ahead of scheduled meetings, and at shorter notice when additional meetings are to support periods of increased caseload. 

There were no further questions. 

On being proposed by the Vice-Chair and seconded by Councillor Miles, recommendations 2, 3 and 4 were put to a vote. The recommendations were unanimously agreed. 

The General Purposes Licensing Committee resolved to:

1.     Agree to vote against the requirement for each of the General Purposes Licensing Casework Sub-Committees to follow the Council’s political proportionality.

2.     Appoint as many General Purposes Licensing Casework sub-committees of three members as there are combinations of three members in the total number of members of the Committee,

3.     Note the Sub-Committees’ powers and duties for hackney carriage, private hire or other driver or vehicle licences, street trading consents and sex establishment licences as set out in Appendix 1 to this report.

4.     Agree the dates on which the Sub-Committees will meet.