Agenda and minutes

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Election of Chair

In the absence of a Chair and Vice-Chair, the Clerk asked for nominations from the Members present.  Councillor Mitchell nominated Councillor Williams and this was seconded by Councillor Rice.

Councillor Williams in the Chair

The Chair informed all present that the meeting was being live streamed on the Council’s website.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Adamou and Basu.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. Late items will be dealt with under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at item 10 below.

The Chair advised that there was a late addition to item 8 of the agenda, which was circulated to Members last week.  These were comments from Legal on the report, which were not available at the time of agenda publication.

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(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

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Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

None.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 16 January 2020 and 2 March 2020

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 16 January and 2 March 2020 be approved as a correct record.

The Licensing Act 2003 (the Act) came into effect on 25^th November 2005. The Act introduced a new regime for the licensing of alcohol, regulated entertainment and late  night refreshments, to be administered by the local licensing authority within Haringey,  this council.

Section 5 of the Act requires each licensing authority to prepare, consult and publish a statement of licensing policy every five years. The policy statement is expected to set out, how the authority intends to approach its licensing responsibilities. Each Authority is also required to keep the statement of policy under review throughout its term and make appropriate revisions as necessary. The purpose of this report is to seek approval for consultation to be undertaken on the draft Statement of Licensing Policy 2021/2026 at Appendix 1.

The current statement of Licensing Policy is due for review and to be published by Jan 2021. This report seeks permission to consult on a revised statement.

Daliah Barrett, Licensing Officer, introduced the report as set out.  There had been no major changes to the legislation, and all changes had been listed in the report.  Following this meeting, consultation of the policy would be carried out with local stakeholders.  On completion of consultation, the policy would be considered again by the Regulatory Committee.

The following was provided in response to questions and comments from the Committee:

-           Paragraph 3.7 – clarity was required in the paragraph around the number of premises which closed at 23.00 as it implied that less than 10% of premises were open beyond this time.

-           Guidance on alcohol consumption – consumption figures to be clarified with Public Health.

-           The term ‘alcohol dependent’ read strangely in the policy – Ms Barrett agreed to refer back to Public Health to provide further explanation of the term.

-           Page 29 – the 1^st sentence was repeated at the end of the paragraph.

-           Paragraph 19.23 – ‘developing Northern West riverside of the borough’ did not make sense.  Ms Barrett agreed to speak to Regeneration colleagues, but would remove from the paragraph.

-           Drugs and weapon boxes – Ms Barrett advised that this would involve conversations with Licence Holders on how searches would be carried out and it was expected that the Police would collect any weapons found.

-           Page 58 – safe drinks area – Ms Barret advised that it would be up to the applicant to decide what was suitable for their premises and would not be under any obligation to include this.

-           The sustainability commitment was too brief and should provide more detail.  Ms Barrett advised that as this was not a licensing objective, further detail could not be added.

-           Consultation needed to be meaningful and provide an input into the final draft.  Ms Barrett advised that in the last consultation, under 20 responses were received and these were considered when producing the final draft of the policy.

RESOLVED that

i.        the draft Haringey Statement of Licensing Policy 2021-2026 be approved for consultation;

ii.       the arrangements for public consultation as set out in section six of the report be noted and approved; and

iii.      following consultation, the responses will be brought back to the Regulatory Committee for consideration and recommendation to Full Council for adoption of the policy.

Report to follow

Daliah Barrett, Licensing Officer, provided a verbal update on the new Business and Planning Act 2020.  The Act was currently going through the Parliament process and it was expected that the 3^rd reading would take place on 20 July 2020.  The introduction of the Act was in response to the impact of Covid-19 on businesses.  The Act would enable businesses with existing on-sales alcohol permissions to sell off-sales without any changes to their licence, and would allow premises to make use of outside space on the public footpaths to serve food and drinks. 

In response to a question from the Committee, Ms Barrett advised that the fee for pavement licences would be capped at £100.  The current pavement licensing fee was based on the amount of space available to use by the premises.  There would be some businesses who would benefit from the cap, as the payment would be less than under the current regime.  Work would also be carried out with the Highways team to ensure that there was adequate space on the pavements for both use by a premises and for the general public using the pavements.

The Committee noted the update.

In 2018, the Government published a revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). As part of the changes a new ‘Housing Delivery Test’ (HDT) was introduced to measure the delivery of new homes against the adopted target contained in development plans. If delivery falls below 95% of the target the Council must produce a Housing Delivery Test Action Plan. The Council’s adopted Housing Target is 1,502 homes per year.

The Government published its 2019 HDT Measurement in February 2020. This indicated that the borough had delivered only 55% (2,628), of its housing requirement (4,506 homes) in the preceding three years. Therefore, an Action Plan is required to be published to show how the Council is responding to the challenge of ensuring that more homes are built in Haringey and faster. Additionally, due to the severe economic impacts the current Covid-19 pandemic will have, this Action Plan will be useful in ensuring the Council has identified all the ways it can possibly help the local economy recover and support the house building industry in delivering much needed homes in the Borough.

The Regulatory Committee are asked to endorse the report to Cabinet for the adoption of the Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2020.

Rob Krzyszowski, Head of Planning Policy, Transport & Infrastructure, introduced the report as set out.  All Local Authorities were tested to ensure that they were meeting housing targets, and the test was backwards looking over the past three years.  Haringey had delivered 55% of its target over the last three years.  Due to this, an action plan was required to set out how housing delivery would be boosted in the borough to better meet the target in future years.  The Action Plan must be published by August 2020.  Section 5 of the report set out the Action Plan, which pulled together existing Council strategies and actions.

The following was provided in response to questions and comments from the Committee:

-           The housing target for the past three years was 1502.  The target in the new London Plan was 1592, but this had not yet been formally adopted.

-           Some figures were old in the report and would be amended for the Cabinet report.

-           The Wood Green and Council office accommodation report was due to be discussed in the Autumn, although Covid-19 and changes to staff working arrangements may have an impact on the report.

-           It was difficult to meet targets due to the fact that they had increased so steeply over time.  Eight years ago, the target was around 500 units.  This then increased to around 1000 units, then to 1502 units.  The Council had increased delivery year on year but it would never have been possible to meet new targets as the delivery programmes were not in place.

-           Table 7 should read February 2022 – this would be amended in the Cabinet report.

-           The Action Plan would set out a good news story in that the Council was being proactive, even though the target had not been achieved.

-           Annual figures on builds could give a misleading picture depending on the sizes of developments in any particular year.  It was better to analyse monthly figures.

-           It was too early for Covid-19 to have any impact on land prices. 

-           The Housing and Regeneration Team were actively looking for sites and engaging with developers to encourage builds.

-           Where developers were not building on land with planning permission, Compulsory Purchase Orders were the only option.  However, this was a long and difficult process.

-           The five year land supply suggested that building targets over the next five years could be met.

RESOLVED that the Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2020 be endorsed for adoption by Cabinet.

A report on the work of the Planning Service in during 1^st  2020 – 17^th June 2020 as well as figures for the application performance in the financial year 2019/20.

Dean Hermitage, Head of Development Management, introduced the report as set out.

Officers responded to questions and comments from the Committee:

-           A module could be added to the training schedule on lessons learnt from Planning Appeals.

-           Decisions on CIL distribution was an executive decision and a Cabinet Member Signing in March 2020 had signed off spending on 41 projects.

-           The Building Control team was continuing to work outside the borough and continued to win larger applications within the borough.

-           Since lockdown, 545 planning applications had been received with 542 determined.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To consider any new items of urgent business admitted under agenda item 3 above.

None.

20 October 2020 – to be rearranged to meet before Cabinet on 13 October 2020

14 January 2021

11 March 2021

5 October 2020