On of my other roles as a Cornwall Councillor is Licensing. I am currently the Vice-Chairman of the Licensing Act Committee. One of the Committees roles is to administer the Licensing Act 2003 by means of Hearings. These Hearings consist of three Councillors trained in Licensing. We can grant, refuse, suspend, or in some cases revoke a licence.
Today one of those Hearings took place for ILL Gatto Nero, Camborne. This Hearing (Review) was brought about by Cornwall Council’s Environmental Protection, Police and Interested Parties (residents). You can find the Agenda and all relevant information HERE.
All sides present their case, and once that has been completed the panel retires for deliberation. Today we revoked the licence because there was clear evidence from Environmental Protection, Police and Interested Parties that this premises was not run to the satisfaction of the Licensing Objectives in the Licensing Act 2003.
No one likes to remove a licence, but we will, if it is shown that a licensee cannot, or will not, run an establishment correctly.
I wonder if anyone has actually read the entire licensing act! I like the bit that states that a licence for a premises would be revoked if the licensee dies. I would have thought that would be the least of ones problems if one were dead. After all, it is like a driving licence, you can hardly leave it for someone else to take over.
Wonder how long it would take to read the entire licensing act. I got half way through it and died, so they had better revoke my licence under part 3 section 27. (Well they could do if I had one)
Having now completed reading the Licensing Act I think my brain is about to explode. It is worse than the Health and Saftey Act. I really must resist the temptation to click on the additional links in the future.
You see what I have to work with! In my view a terrible piece of legislation. Hopefully, a lot of the issues/problems will be sorted in the current Parliamentary review of the Act.