The General Licensing Committee of Darlington Borough Council will meet to discuss a review of the Council's Pavement Café Policy. The Committee will also consider whether to renew the licence for civil marriage and civil partnership ceremonies at Rockliffe Hall Hotel.

Pavement Café Policy Review

The Committee has been asked to approve a new version of the Council's Pavement Café Policy for public consultation.

The current policy was adopted in 2000 and last updated in 2014. A report prepared for the meeting says that:

The Council’s policy in respect of the licensing of pavement cafes in Darlington was designed to enhance the leisure provision for residents and visitors to Darlington and add to the vibrancy of both the day and evening economy of the town centre.

The proposed changes include:

• Updating the policy to consider the safety of Publicly Accessible Locations.
• Prohibiting the use of mandatory cycle lanes by pavement cafés.
• Prohibiting pavement café licensees from allowing advertising for gambling or vaping products.
• Requiring that pavement café furniture not be stored on the highway outside of the pavement café's operating hours, “unless, in exceptional circumstances where permission has been granted following consultation with key stakeholders”.
• Allowing the use of high-quality composite furniture in pavement cafés.
• Allowing the use of large parasols or other shade structures in pavement cafés.
• Allowing the use of electric heaters in pavement cafés, subject to a risk assessment.
• Reducing the minimum width of unobstructed pavement required next to a pavement café from 2 metres to 1.5 metres in some circumstances.
• Allowing multiple pavement café licensees to share a single, larger area of pavement.
• Allowing pavement café customers to drink soft drinks from bottles.
• Prohibiting smoking or vaping anywhere within a pavement café, and requiring license holders to direct smokers to a designated area.
• Removing the requirement for pavement cafés to provide food.
• Allowing pavement cafés to play low-level background music.
• Allowing pavement cafés to show television inside, where the screens are not visible from the pavement café area, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the council.
• Increasing the maximum terminal hour for pavement cafés from 10:30pm to 11pm.
• Requiring applicants for new pavement café licenses to undertake counter-terrorism awareness training.

The report says that, following the consultation, the policy will be returned to the committee, before a final decision is made by the full council.

Civil Marriage and Civil Partnership ceremonies at Rockliffe Hall Hotel

The Committee will be asked to approve the renewal of the licence for civil marriage and civil partnership ceremonies at Rockliffe Hall Hotel in Hurworth.

The current licence is due to expire on 24 November 2024. The Committee has been asked to renew the licence for a further three years, until 24 November 2027. The report pack includes a list of the rooms at the hotel licensed for ceremonies, and the maximum capacity of each room.