The Director of Law, Governance, and Strategy has submitted a report to establish four General Purposes Licensing Sub-Committees for the 2025-26 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 that the casework hearings for hackney carriage, private hire or other driver or vehicle licences, street trading consents and sex establishment licences should be determined by sub-committees on the basis of the Powers and Duties of GPL Sub-Committees at Appendix 1.

2.    Establish four sub-committees of three members, as set out in table 1 of the report, and agree the membership, each to undertake the casework of the General Purposes Licensing Committee as set out in Appendix 1

3.    Agree that substitution is permitted on each of the four Sub-Committees but that substitutes must be from the General Purposes Licensing Committee.

4.    Agree the meeting dates and time listed below.

The Director of Law, Governance, and Strategy has submitted a report to establish four General Purposes Licensing Sub-Committees for the 2025-26 Council Year to deal with the casework flowing from the Committee’s own responsibilities.

The Committee and Member Services Manager introduced the report, outlining that the membership of General Purposes Licensing Casework Sub-Committees are currently allocated with consideration for political proportionality. The report however recommends that due to the political makeup of the Committee, members vote to remove the requirement to adhere to political proportionality to allow all 15 members to sit on Sub-Committees throughout the forthcoming year. The Committee understood that a vote was required, and all members must vote unanimously in favour for the motion to pass. If the Committee voted against the recommendation, it was explained that each Sub-Committee would be appointed based on the political composition of the Council and would therefore include one member of the Labour group, one member of the Lib Dem group, and one member of the Green group.

Councillor asked if the allocation to Sub-Committees would follow a rotation of attendance as had been the case in the previous Council year.  The Chair confirmed this.

The Chair commented that voting to abandon political proportionality would also allow members of all groups to attend Sub-Committees.

The Chair proposed the motion and Councillor Jupp seconded.

The Committee unanimously voted in favour to remove the requirement for political proportionality for the 2025/26 Council year.

To establish Sub-Committees membership, the Committee and Member Services Manager referred to the report and explained that the Chair of Sub-Committees A and C would be Councillor Muddiman, and the Chair of Sub-Committees B and D would be Councillor Rehman. The Committee were then asked to nominate themselves to fill the remaining two places on each Sub-Committee. All Committee members nominated themselves which exceeded the number required for each Sub-Committee.

Councillor Muddiman proposes an amendment to the recommendations to appoint three members and one reserve member to each sub-committee to allow for a pre-allocated substitute for each meeting to be available. Councillor Lygo seconded the amendment.

The Committee voted unanimously in support to:

1. Agree that the casework hearings for hackney carriage, private hire or other driver or vehicle licences, street trading consents and sex establishment licences should be determined by sub-committees on the basis of the Powers and Duties of GPL Sub-Committees at Appendix 1.
2. Establish four sub-committees of three members and one reserve member and agree the membership listed in the table below, each to undertake the casework of the General Purposes Licensing Committee as set out in Appendix 1
3. Agree that substitution is permitted on each of the four Sub-Committees but that substitutes must be from the General Purposes Licensing Committee.
4. Agree the meeting dates and time listed within the report.

The following Sub-Committee allocations were agreed:

The Chair explained to the Sub-Committee that for the purposes of the first two Sub-Committees of the new Council year, she would swap her attendance with the Vice-Chair, Councillor Rehman, to ensure she could attend mandatory training before sitting on a Sub-Committee. On this basis, Councillor Rehman, as Vice-Chair of the Committee, will attend the Sub-Committee on 9 June 2025.

Councillor Clarkson and Councillor Lygo left the meeting.