At the commencement of the hearing a speaking order for parties was agreed and that the Committee would go through the conditions line by line and the parties would be asked to comment on each section in the speaking order.  Parties would then have the opportunity to state whether they requested on behalf of their clients any exemptions or exclusions from that standard condition.  This process was agreed by all parties.

To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.  See attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

There were no declarations of interest made.

At the request of the Chair, Mrs Gurwinder Olive, Senior Lawyer introduced the report which set out the terms of reference of the Licensing Committee and the process for the determination of Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) transitional applications by existing operators under the statutory scheme.

It was noted that the function for determining SEV applications was reserved to the Licensing Committee by the Council when the legislation for licensing of SEVs was adopted on 26 March 2014.

Mrs Olive explained the process and procedures in place for considering applications for Sexual Entertainment Venues. It was noted that five applications in total had been received for the grant of a SEV licence between the first appointed day and the second appointed day in respect of the following venues;

·                     Charlie’s Angels, 30 Alie Street, E1

·                     Metropolis, 234 Cambridge Heath Road, E2

·                     Nag’s Head, 17-19 Whitechapel Road, E1

·                     White Swan. 556 Commercial Road, E14

·                     White’s Gentleman’s Club, 32-38 Leman Street, E1

It was further noted that Charlie’s Angel’s was accepted as an application by a new operator and the remaining four as applications from existing operators.  In order to allow sufficient time to determine the applications a waiver for a SEV License had been granted to Charlie’s Angels until 1 July 2015, which allows it to continue to operate for the short-term.

A Licensing Committee Hearing took place on 17 March 2015 in respect of Nag’s Head and a further Licensing Committee Hearing took place on 14 April 2015 in respect of White’s Gentleman’s Club. It was noted that the applications for White Swan and Metropolis were considered on 28 April 2015, these applications were considered on paper in the first instance, as there were no objections or history of complaints.

Mrs Olive advised that the Licensing Committee did not make a decision on any of the above dates.  The meeting on each occasion was concluded with applicants being advised that matters would be determined after consideration of all applications.

Mrs Olive concluded by explaining that the consideration of all of the applications and varied proposals for conditions had led to a revision of the previously drafted Standard Conditions.  Standard Conditions were revised to take on board all of the applications and submissions and Councillors comments and concerns and were provided to all applicants for comment.  Mrs Olive explained that the Extraordinary meeting today is to deal with representations and comments in respect of those revised standard conditions.

At the request of the Chair Mr Gareth Hughes, Legal Representative for Metropolis, explained that he had not had an opportunity to address the Committee as the application for Metropolis had not received any objections and therefore Members considered the written application on the agenda for 28 April 2015.

Mr Hughes referred to page 47 of the agenda, the Council’s SEV Policy where it states that during the determination of an application, “applications with no representations will be approved under the delegated authority to officers”. Mr Hughes stated that the policy sets out 3  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.1