Minutes
Argyll and Bute Council · 19 October 2022
Back to Planning, Protective Services and Licensing Committee — 19 October 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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MINUTES of MEETING of PLANNING, PROTECTIVE SERVICES AND LICENSING COMMITTEE held BY MICROSOFT TEAMS on WEDNESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2022 Present: Councillor Kieron Green (Chair) Councillor John Armour Councillor Jan Brown Councillor Amanda Hampsey Councillor Graham Hardie Councillor Fiona Howard Councillor Mark Irvine Councillor Andrew Kain Councillor Liz McCabe Councillor Peter Wallace Attending: Stuart McLean, Committee Manager Sheila MacFadyen, Senior Solicitor Fiona Macdonald, Solicitor Sgt David Holmes, Police Scotland 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies were received from Councillors Audrey Forrest, Daniel Hampsey and Paul Kennedy. 2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Councillor John Armour declared a non-financial interest in this case as the Licence Holder was a neighbour. Councillor Armour left the meeting and took no part in this hearing. The Committee resolved in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to exclude the press and public for the following item of business on the grounds that it was likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 3 and 14 of Part 1 of Schedule 7A to the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. 3. CIVIC GOVERNMENT (SCOTLAND) ACT 1982: REQUEST FOR SUSPENSION OF TAXI DRIVER LICENCE (NUMBER 5680) (S MATHIESON, DRUMLEMBLE, CAMPBELTOWN) The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. In line with recent legislation for Civic Government Hearings, the parties (and any representatives) were given the options for participating in the meeting today. The options available were by video call, by audio call or by written submission. For this hearing Police Scotland opted to proceed by way of audio call and Sgt David Holmes joined the meeting by telephone. It was noted that the Licence Holder was not present. The Council’s Solicitor explained that it would be competent for the Committee to proceed with this interim hearing and consider the request for the immediate suspension of the Taxi Driver Licence. The Committee agreed to proceed with the hearing and the Chair, having previously outlined the procedure that would be followed, invited Police Scotland to speak in support of the Chief Constable’s complaint.
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POLICE SCOTLAND Sgt Holmes read out the contents of a letter from the Chief Constable dated 11 August 2022 which requested the immediate suspension of the licence and outlined the reasons for this. MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS The Members were given the opportunity to ask Sgt Holmes questions. SUMMING UP Police Scotland Sgt Holmes advised that he had nothing further to add and confirmed that he had received a fair hearing. DEBATE The Members of the Committee debated the request to suspend the Taxi Driver Licence. DECISION The Committee unanimously agreed to the immediate interim suspension of the Taxi Driver Licence pending a full suspension hearing taking place no later than 6 weeks from the date of this hearing. (Reference: Report by Head of Legal and Regulatory Support, submitted)