Agenda item

Report

4.1       Development Officer, Claire Penny, was in attendance to present the draft findings of the Langlee Alcohol Project Community Consultation.  Ms Penny explained that the Project Plan for the work being carried out in Langlee was made up of three stages: gathering data; developing an action plan; and implementing and evaluating the action plan.  A steering group for the project had been identified with representatives from the ADP, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue, Equality and Diversity, Healthy Living Network and Community Development.  As part of the first stage of the project a Community Consultation was carried out in Langlee and a paper summarising the findings was circulated at the meeting.  Views had been gathered from about 140 individuals.  Included was a Youth Consultation carried out by TD1 Youth Hub, to capture the views of young people of the community as well as the adults.  Charts within the report reflected the gender and age of respondents, and how they rated the level of alcohol concerns and issues in Langlee.  In a question about the types of concerns about alcohol the three most common concerns were alcohol-related anti-social behaviour, the location of drinking and young people’s access to alcohol. With regard to ideas of what could be done to help the situation respondents thought the most effective would be support groups, licensing measures, police support and public awareness sessions.  Ms Penny gave a summary of views given during the consultation day.  In putting together an action plan Ms Penny advised that the four key areas related to: the need for more public awareness; a lack of activity and employment; commentary around drug litter; and adults purchasing alcohol for consumption by young people.  Ms Walker clarified that the purpose of gathering the views of the community was to gain understanding of community views around alcohol in their area and a means towards building community assets. Specific issues around Licensing would be shared with the Forum, Licensing Board and Licensing Team.

4.2       Discussion continued in relation to Occasional Licensed Events, e.g. the Langlee Carnival, and the fact that volunteer bodies who were granted occasional licences did not usually receive training.  Mr Tunnah advised that training had been given to some voluntary groups in the past, such as the Ex Callants and Ex Laddies Associations and that this could be repeated.  It was pointed out that the number of voluntary bodies applying for licences was increasing and that consideration should be given to adding a requirement for training in the Licensing Policy document.  Mr Gillies drew attention to other issues around occasional licenses granted to voluntary bodies and expressed the view that stipulations relating to issues such as capacity and number of toilets for events, should be the same as for licenses granted to permanent holders. After further discussion the Convenor thanked Ms Penny for her attendance.

DECISION

(a)        NOTED the draft findings from the Langlee Alcohol Project consultation.

(b)       AGREED to address issue of training of license applicants from voluntary bodies as part of License Policy consideration.