Two licensing panel hearings have been postponed because too few qualified councillors are available to decide whether to grant the applications for drinks licences.
Only four members of Brighton and Hove City Council Licensing Committee were re-elected this month, with five standing down from the council and six losing their seats.
And the number of councillors with experience of sitting on licensing panels is likely to reduce further before the month is out.
Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn, who has previously chaired the Licensing Committee and is currently deputy mayor, is expected to become mayor at the annual council meeting on Thursday 25 May.
Those in the politically neutral post have by convention stepped back from committee work while serving as mayor.
The other three remaining councillors who have been trained to sit on licensing panels are Green councillor Steve Davis, Labour councillor Theresa Fowler and Conservative councillor Carol Theobald.
When Conservative councillor Dee Simson lost her seat in Woodingdean, the council lost one of its most experienced licensing experts.
Green councillor Zoe John, who served as chair of the Licensing Committee, also lost her seat in the local elections this month.
The licensing process is “quasi-judicial”. Panels sit when the police, council officials or others object to a new application or if the council or police apply for a licence to be reviewed.
Councillors are required to hear evidence and reach a decision based on licensing law and council policy rather than political considerations.
Members have introductory training before they join the Licensing Committee to help them to understand licensing law and council policy.
The newly elected councillors have been receiving induction training – and the membership of the new Licensing Committee is due to be announced later this week.
Two panels were due to take place on Wednesday (17 May). No papers have been published for either panel which means that the reasons for objections are not yet public.
One applicant was Bread and Milk Ltd, an independent café business owned by Rupert and Jenny Davidson, both 47.
They want a licence to serve alcohol at Bread and Milk, in Trafalgar Street, Brighton, and extended trading hours – until 9pm rather than the current 5pm closing time.
But Trafalgar Street is in the busy centre of Brighton and Hove where the council has tougher rules for new licences because there are so many premises selling drink and a high volume of drink-related crime and anti-social behaviour.
But a café that offers substantial food at all times and shuts by 10pm would usually be acceptable in principle.
The second application is for a convenience store, Harvest, at 22 Church Road, Hove, the former GFC Kebab House site.
The operator, LMJ Church Road Ltd, owned by Joseph Pdeen, 47, has applied for a licence to sell alcohol from 8am to 5am daily.
Church Road is also in an area covered by stricter licensing rules. The council’s policy is to refuse new off-licence applications unless the operator can prove exceptional circumstances before a licensing panel.
A third panel – not yet postponed – is due to take place on Tuesday 23 May. Motor Fuel Limited, the operator of Hove Service Station, in Denmark Villas, has applied to extend its licence to allow 24-hour drink sales.
The business is not in an area covered by extra restrictions although council policy is for off-licences to close at 11pm in “densely residential areas” unless there are exceptional circumstances.
You get what you vote for.
38 Labour councillors elected 11 days ago and not enough of them qualified to decide on licensing laws and trading.
I’ve said it before, i’ll say it again: BHCC will be bankrupted in the next 4 years.
Oh Nina, in reality, it’s not difficult nor time-consuming to train someone up on basic policy around licensing, your concerns really are quite unfounded.
AND YOU have not understood it is only partly policy! Both Licensing and Planning are quasi-judicial requiring undestanding of the laws. When they get it wrong and Appeals are successful, the legal costs are HUGE against BHCC.
I hope you are not a cardboard cutout chair propper yourself!
So you expect them all to be trained – plus greens and tories – in less than a couple of weeks since the election – on highly technical legislation and decision making processes – when the new council hasn’t been formed yet (that happens at full council next week).
And legally new councillors weren’t councillors until last Tuesday so a week ago.
It’s only next week when the new leader is elected by the full council as well as committee chairs and committee members appointed.
Despite their majority the council isn’t a dictatorship and proper, legal process must still be followed.
This isn’t some sort of scandal and this happens to some degree after every council election.
Training is being undertaken this week, though as a Councillor in opposition we have yet to hear how the committee will be made up.
I see that a good chunk of the pavement has been commandeered in the first photo. Is it their pavemenmt to use?
Exactly Chris, the Labour Council need to enforce the existing laws around ‘pavement clutter’. I walk everywhere and it’s selfish independent shop owners who believe they are entitled to put their boards and seating on public footpaths, beyond a joke.