Agenda item - Chair's Communications

As I previously have stated it was clear from the panel I contributed to earlier this week, there is a huge amount of knowledge and experience in this room.

However, its not just those in this room but a whole mass of people that make sure our city and its licenced business run smoothly, including our colleagues policing our night time economy. I understand that the last visit with operation marble was a couple of years ago and I thought I would take this opportunity to gauge interest from members to see if another tour of the night time economy alongside officers from operation marble would be of interest? Perhaps in the Autumn?

Today we have our annual licensing report, demonstrating the scale and range of work carried out by the licensing team, as well as a review of licencing panel arrangements and the schedule of reviews and appeals. Something that has already become clear to me as chair, is how many colleagues would like to contribute to sitting on panels but they are either unable to make the day or just don’t get their response to the request in quickly enough! It has also been stressed to me that having to reschedule panels can be, not only difficult to organise, but could come at the expense of those attending. Since it is only those of us who sit on this committee who are able to sit on a panel, I believe some type of discussion is needed to make sure all who wish to can contribute. If you have specific ideas on how to do this, then please do get in touch. We will also organise a roundtable with lead members to see if we can find a way forward, if you have particular interest in attending that, lead member or not, please also do get in touch.