Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED – That Councillor B Selby be elected as Chair for the hearing.

1)  To highlight reports or appendices which:

a)  officers have identified as containing exempt information, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

b)  To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in respect of the above information.

c)  If so, to formally pass the following resolution:-

  RESOLVED – That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of those parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information

2)  To note that under the Licensing Procedure rules, the press and the public will be excluded from that part of the hearing where Members will deliberate on each application as it is in the public interest to allow the Members to have a full and frank debate on the matter before them.

The Sub-Committee was advised that there were appendices to the report that contained information that was considered to be exempt under Access to Information Procedure Rules 10.4 (1,2) and that should the information in these appendices be discussed than a resolution should be passed to exclude members of the press and public form the hearing during that period.

There were no late items as such.  A supplementary information pack had been published and distributed which contained the following:

·  Letter from the applicant’s representative dated 9 May 2017.

·  Revised Appendix E

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 and paragraphs 13-16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations.

The report of the Head of Elections, Licensing and Registration requests Members to consider the background and history to the making of the review application made by West Yorkshire Police (Appendix A).

(Report attached)

The report of the Head of Elections, Licensing and Registration presented an application made by West Yorkshire Police for a review of the Premises Licence for Centenary Pavilion, Lowfields Road South, Beeston, Leeds, LS12 6BS.

A review of the Licence, held by Leeds United Centenary Pavilion Ltd, had been sought under Section 51 of the Licensing Act due to incidents involving large scale fights and violent crime.

The following were in attendance:

Centenary Pavilion

Mr P Whurr, Woods Whur

Mr P Bell, Executive Director, Leeds United

Mr V Merryman, Designated Premises Supervisor

Mr M Mitchell, Conference & Events Manager

West Yorkshire Police

Ms C Sanderson, Licensing Officer

Sgt D Shaw

It was reported that the Sub-Committee had viewed video footage of incidents that had occurred at the Centenary Pavilion.  West Yorkshire Police informed the Sub-Committee that they would not wish to refer to the footage and the Centenary Pavilion representative stated that they did not have any concern regarding the video footage in relation to the hearing.

Ms C Sanderson presented the case for West Yorkshire Police.  The review of the license had been applied for due to the severity of incidents that had occurred during White Collar Boxing events held at the premises.  Reference was made to incidents that had occurred in December 2014, April 2016 and February 2017.  As part of the review it was requested that boxing and wrestling be removed from the license.

The Sub-Committee was informed of large scale disorder that had taken place during White Collar Boxing events held at the venue and action plan meetings that had taken place between West Yorkshire Police and the applicant.  The following concerns had been identified:

• Problems with open ticket sales – there had also been an agreement not to sell tickets on the door but according to posts on social media there had been tickets made available this way.
• The wider of impact due to the number of police officers that had to attend the disturbances at the venue.
• The organisers had not been able to control the situations that had occurred at the venue.
• Children had been present during the disturbances.
• Concern regarding some of the fighters and their supporters.
• Discussions with the British Board of Boxing had raised concern with White Collar Boxing and the lack of regulation for these events.

In summary, the review of the license had been sought because of the following:

• The continued failure to successfully manage boxing events following previous incidents and action plan meetings with West Yorkshire Police.
• It was felt the capacity of the venue was too large for such events.
• A failure to meet the objective of protecting children from harm.
• A failure to meet a previous agreement in respect of ticket sales and tickets not being available on the door.
• It was felt there had been a breakdown in trust between West Yorkshire Police and the applicant.

In response to comments and question from the Sub-Committee, the following was discussed:

• During the incident in February  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.