Agenda and minutes
Public Speaking: To register your intention to speak at a Council, Cabinet or Committee meeting, please contact Democratic Services on committee@uttlesford.gov.uk or 01799 510410, 510548, 510369 or 510460. Panel, Forum and Working Group meetings do not generally permit public speaking. Please refer to a specific meeting's pdf agenda pack for further information and registration deadlines.
Live Broadcast: For Council, Cabinet and Committee meetings the video player will be available on this page under the Media banner a few minutes before the meeting is due to begin. Please note that Panel, Board, Forum and Working Group meetings are not generally broadcast on the website. We believe that live streaming video of our formal decision making meetings, and publishing the recordings to be watched back later, is good for democracy – and you can find these videos on our website. This video technology sits alongside the longstanding practice of providing seats in the public gallery for members of the public and journalists to turn up and watch our in-person meetings live. Please understand that whilst we will continue to make every reasonable effort to ensure that our key public meetings at which important decisions are live streamed and recorded, any failure in that technology does not in any way invalidate the legitimacy of that meeting or of the decisions taken at it. Even in the event of such occasional technical failures, the public gallery will still have been open, as required by law, and the minutes of the meetings will still be made available in due course.
Zoom and YouTube have their own privacy and data security policies, which can be accessed at www.zoom.us and www.youtube.com.
PDF 134 KBVenue: Council Chamber - Council Offices, London Road, Saffron Walden, CB11 4ER. View directions
Contact: Democratic Services 01799 510434 Email: committee@uttlesford.gov.uk
| No. | Item |
|---|---|
|
Application for a review - Queen Victoria Great Dunmow To determine the review application of the premises licence in respect of Queen Victoria restaurant, Great Dunmow. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Chairman introduced the Panel and explained procedure to those present.
The Licensing Officer gave a summary of the report.
The Council had received an application from Essex Police for the review of Queen Victoria restaurant’s premises licence. Essex Police were seeking a revocation of the licence on the grounds that the prevention of crime and disorder licensing objective had been breached, due to the discovery of disqualified persons working illegally on the premises.
No right to work checks had been carried out, demonstrating a disregard of statutory requirements and hence a failure to prevent crime and disorder. The Notice of Review had been issued by the Council on 18 July 2018, with a consultation period lasting until the 14 August.
During this time sixteen letters of support for the restaurant had been submitted. Members were asked to determine the review with due regard paid to the Council’s Licensing Policy and the Secretary of State’s most recent Guidance issued in April 2018 under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003. This Guidance deals specifically with immigration offences.
At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Harman questioned the Licensing Officer regarding the content of the report.
Mr Harman asked whether the Council’s view on criminality was guided by its licensing objectives.
The Licensing Officer confirmed that it was.
The Chairman invited the representatives from Essex Police to put their case forward.
Mrs Powell referred to Regulation 19(b) Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations 2005 and said the Panel could only consider evidence relevant to the licensing objectives and that character references were therefore irrelevant.
The Chairman said in the interests of transparency, the Panel would hear from those representatives who had attended the meeting to speak in support of the Queen Victoria restaurant, to ensure there was an equal and fair opportunity for both parties to put their case forward but would take advice as to the weight to be accorded to their comments.
Mrs Powell presented the case of Essex Police. She said illegal workers had been found on the premises on 6 July 2018, and that the restaurant had a history of this. She asked Officer Gear, who had been involved in the immigration raid, to describe what had happened on the day.
Officer Gear outlined the details of the Queen Victoria raid on 6 July 2018. He said four staff, of Bangladeshi origin, were believed to be working illegally and three were detained. The fourth absconded and it was deemed unsafe to give chase. The raid had been brought about due to intelligence provided to the Police but the history of the site was also important, with illegal workers being found on three separate occasions in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Mrs Powell said it had been the fourth time in five years that illegal workers had been found on the premises. She said Mr Chowdhury, following a previous immigration raid, had been quoted in the Dunmow Broadcast newspaper as stating he knew right to work checks had to be ... view the full minutes text for item 1. |