The membership of the Licensing and Gambling
Sub-Committee is drawn from the main Committee and comprises of 3
members only.
The Sub-Committee meetings will be held as
remote hearings.
Remote Hearing Protocol (Licensing and Gambling)
What is a remote
hearing?
Any hearing where at least one of the
below participate in the hearing by whatever means, other than
written evidence, when not in the same room as the sub-committee.
This includes meetings where all participants attend online or
hybrid meetings where there is a mix of in-person and on-line
attendance.
•
Any member of the sub-committee involved in the hearing
•
The applicant
•
The licence holder
•
Any legal representative for any party
•
Any witness giving evidence orally at the hearing
The hearings can fall into one of
three categories
•
In person
•
Hybrid
•
Remote
In person hearing is when all parties are in
the same room.
Hybrid meetings are when some of the
participants are in the same room but at least one of the other
parties to the hearing participate online.
A remote hearing is when all parties
to the hearing participate online.
Deciding if hearing
is to be remote or not.
•The default position of the council is to hold
remote hearings.
•Any request from either party to hold a
particular type of hearing should be submitted at least 2 weeks in
advance of the meeting where possible will be considered by
Democratic Services in consultation with legal services and the
Chair of the licensing committee.
•Requests for the style of hearings will be
determined on a case-by-case basis. All requests will need to
provide documented reasons for their request.
•The overriding factor in deciding on the style
of the hearing is to ensure a fair hearing. Witnesses giving
corroborative evidence provided by another are unlikely to have
requests to give their evidence remotely accepted. Similarly, reasons of convenience will not be
accepted as a reason to change a style of hearing.
•Any decision to refuse a particular style of
hearing will be recorded in writing with reasons for the decision.
This will be read out by the chair of the sitting subcommittee at
the start of the agenda item it relates to.
Access to the
hearing remotely
Hybrid or Remote hearings will be
held using the Microsoft Teams Platform.
If you are taking part in the hearing
in any of the roles noted above you will be sent and invitation to
join the MS Teams meeting.
The MS Teams meeting will be started
15 minutes before the hearing begins to be able to test the
connection, audio and video feeds.
This invitation will specifically be
for those taking part in the meeting and should not be shared.
Where required the hybrid/remote
meeting will also be live streamed so that it can be watched at the
Civic Centre.
The venue to view the hearing will be
published on the council website and contained in any
correspondence concerning the hearing.
Connection
Problems
If a participant is unable to connect
to the meeting before the meeting starts they are to contact
democratic services to try and resolve the issue. Legal advice will
be required on how to proceed if the connection cannot be
secured.
If a participant loses connection
part way through, then the meeting should be adjourned until
connection is resolved or decided to be heard at a different
time.