Agenda and draft minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 11 February 2026 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Guidance is available online to Councillors and co-opted members on making declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

Information on public speaking is available online

There were no public speakers.

Information on matters of urgency is available online

There were no matters of urgency.

To agree any items to be dealt with after the public (including the press) have been excluded. Thereare no itemswhich officersrecommendshould be dealtwithin thisway.

There were no confidential or exempt items.

The Licensing Manager introduced the report which provided an update on the activities of the Licensing Service under the Licensing Act 2003, Gambling Act 2005, Taxi and Private Hire Licensing and General Licensing including Street Trading and Pavement Licensing.

Discussion and responses to questions included the following points:

·        Explaining the duty of care to patrons by licensed premises in relation to gambling addiction.  All licensed premises inspected are compliant in that they have proven the measures they have in place for the duty of care.

·        Explaining that premises licences are in place until they are surrendered or cancelled by the licence holder.

·        Consideration of the taxi fare rates will be explored further through a report to the next scheduled committee meeting, where the report will take account of the price index for fuel as well as other factors for the overall tariff. A request was made for comparison detail with the tariff of other authorities in Devon.

·        The role of the Safety Advisory Group was explained for the consideration of events, covering a wide range of bodies including the Police and County Highways; Licensing was only one part of that if the event included an application for either the sale of alcohol or regulated entertainment.

·        There was still no clear indication of how the delivery of services from the licensing team would look under local government reorganisation.

The update report was noted.