Current priorities and concerns

Licensing

As Chairman of Licensing one of my main priorities has been to co-ordinate with all partners and EBC officers to ensure all licensed outlets including public houses and restaurants keep to their conditions.

I have been campaigning to ensure that all licensed premises display their conditions on a front window display so police officers and members of the public can stop anti-social behaviour and excessive noise, by reporting the premises to the Council if the conditions are broken.

The Council took the decision at a Licensing sub Committee hearing on 16 November 2010 to require a public house to display the licence extract externally, after local residents had triggered the hearing by objecting to the application for amending the licence, to have increased hours of music at the premises. In future anyone will be able to see at a glance if one of their local pubs is complying with licence conditions applied by Elmbridge Council, after the Council took the innovative step of requiring conditions to be displayed so that they are visible on the outside of the premises.

Although pubs and other licensed premises are already required by law to display a summary of the licence on site, this does not have to be visible from the outside of the premises.

The requirement for such an externally visible notice is believed to be a first by a council acting in its capacity as a licensing authority under the Licensing Act 2003.

Chairman of the Council's Licensing Committee, Cllr Ian Donaldson, who also chaired The Ditton hearing said, " I am delighted that our sub Committee was able to assist local residents by taking this innovative step to require this useful information to be readily made available to them." He continued, "Neighbours, customers and other interested parties can easily see whether licensed premisses are operating within their key licence conditions, and - if they have any concerns - they can contact the Council."

Residents or others with concerns about any premises licensed by the Council, or seeking further information, can contact the Environmental Health & Licensing Division visit the licensing web pages.

Green Belt

With Hersham residents always in mind I will strongly advocate that our Green Belt is safeguarded. I will oppose inappropriate or bulky developments, and will always make sure your concerns are aired.

Crime

I will carry on my active involvement with our local police to ensure that Hersham remains a very safe place to live.

Council Tax

To ensure we keep the EBC council tax as low as possible during this difficult time as we have done for the last 5 years.

Finally, if you have any concerns please feel free to contact me.

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