Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, please see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are reminded to declare the nature of the interest and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it’s the Members’ responsibility to declare any interests form and to update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of your interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services

There were no declarations of interest.

Mr David Tolley, Head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards, introduced the report and explained that the Council must review its Cumulative Impact Assessment Policies (CIA) every 3 years. As part of the review the Council is to carry out statutory consultation in the same way as specified for reviewing the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy.

It was noted that the Brick Lane Cumulative Impact Area had been in place for 7 years and the Bethnal Green Cumulative Impact Area for 3 years. It was noted that the consultation process took place between 28^th January and 22^nd April 2021 and that this report would go to overview and scrutiny, cabinet and then to Full Council for adoption in November 2021.

Mr Tolley explained that the CIAs seek to help limit the number or types of licence applications granted in areas where there is evidence that show that the number or density of licensed premises is having a cumulative impact in an area or leading to problems that undermine the four licensing objectives.

Mr Tolley, detailed the consultation process and the responses received and then referred to the list of consultees in appendix 3 of the report. He went on to explain that the online response asked two main questions to which 55% wanted the Brick Lane CIA to remain and 58% wanted the Bethnal Green CIA to remain.

It was noted that during the consultation, residents asked if the Bethnal Green CIA could be extended to create one large CIA encompassing the areas between the CIAs and Columbia Road. Mr Tolley explained that the review of the CIAs in Brick Lane and Bethnal Green did not include any proposal to extend into the Weavers or Bethnal Green extensions. Therefore, to extend the CIAs as suggested would require another statutory consultation, where the Council would need to consider if there was sufficient evidence that, crime and disorder or nuisance related to the cumulative impact of licensed premises is occurring within the Weavers and/or Bethnal Green extensions. Due to the number of requests for this proposal, Officers collated information on the number of licensed premises in the area, the number and types of complaints received etc. and in conclusion it did not appear that the area had a high saturation of licensed premises within the proposed extension area. 

In response to questions the following was noted;

-       Officers to report back to the Committee with a breakdown of the reported number of crime and disorder the Police attend to in Tower Hamlets especially in the CIAs in comparison to other neighbouring boroughs.

-       Concerns raised as to why applications in the CIA areas are being approved, it was noted that these could be because of a range of things, such as small offerings of alcohol, robust conditions, demonstrating exceptional circumstances, or successfully rebutting the presumption of not negatively impacting on the area. 

-       That the onus was on the applicant to demonstrate how they would not negatively impact on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.1