Agenda item

Report of the Director of Community Protection

Pete Mitchell, Head of Regulation, presented a report on the review of the current Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) of licensed premises. The following points were discussed:

(a)  the current CIA was published in October 2018. The three-yearly statutory review process is being carried out and the CIA has been updated to reflect the current statistical data and information. It is a requirement that the draft CIA is released by the Licensing Committee for public consultation, which is proposed to take place from 11 August to 10 September, to inform a final CIA to be brought back to the Committee for adoption at its meeting on 4 October;

(b)  based on the review and following consultation with Nottinghamshire Police, it is proposed to maintain the City Centre Saturation Zone (first created in July 2005) and the Berridge, Arboretum and Radford Saturation Zone (first created in January 2014). The Berridge, Arboretum and Radford zone was created primarily to restrict the concentration of off-licenses as a means of addressing public health concerns and anti-social behaviour, as the sale of very strong alcohol at cheap prices has been a problem for the area;

(c)  the City Centre zone is intended to restrict off-licenses and establishments where a primary purpose is to sell high volumes of alcohol, to seek to limit anti-social behaviour and crime. In order to ensure that the city centre is a good environment for people to visit and enjoy, this policy promotes more mixed premises with a wider offer than solely high-volume alcohol sales. There are approximately 429 licensed premises in the city centre, which represents an 8% increase since 2018 (rather than the 22% increase as stated currently in the draft CIA, which will be corrected before it is published for consultation);

(d)  the designation of a Saturation Zone does not ban the granting of any new licenses within the area. Licenses to sell alcohol may still be applied for and any application will be considered on the basis of its own merits, taking proper account of current policy and any representations made in response;

(e)  the Committee considered that it is important for appropriate measures to be in place to tackle street drinking and the wider health impacts of alcohol consumption, and that the Saturation Zones have helped to maintain Nottingham’s ‘Purple Flag’ status as a safe city for a number of years.

Resolved to approve the release of the draft Cumulative Impact Assessment for public consultation.